Seem to have gotten something in my eye...

>> ^MarineGunrock:

Seem to have gotten something in my eye...


It all comes out of work for the DoD, MG. It's primary purpose was to keep military folks safe and help them if they werent' safe.

My university does similar work, but under a different paradigm. It's really great showing the work to new people.

Okay fuckers. I know it made me weepy. Start voting.

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Friday, October 8th, 2010 12:11pm PDT - promote requested by MarineGunrock.

No, that's not the primary purpose. Nothing about this system looks remotely practical for field use.

I'd say the primary purpose of this system is to make lots of money for defence contractors so they can throw a small percentage of that back at the politicians who make military boondoggles like this possible.

>> ^oxdottir:

It all comes out of work for the DoD, MG. It's primary purpose was to keep military folks safe and help them if they werent' safe.
My university does similar work, but under a different paradigm. It's really great showing the work to new people.

Did you see the soldiers carrying 200 pound loads with this thing, safely? And the money went to Berkeley, not a defence contractor. The commercialization for civilians followed later, and is encouraged by the DoD.

>> ^oxdottir:

Did you see the soldiers carrying 200 pound loads with this thing, safely? And the money went to Berkeley, not a defence contractor. The commercialization for civilians followed later, and is encouraged by the DoD.


Berkley Bionics is not Berkley University. It is a private, for profit, company.

Knowing this is part of my job: Berkeley Bionics was founded by UCB faculty. The research was done at UCB. To quote Berkeley Bionics's website:

2005: Berkeley ExoWorks™ is founded by Dr. Homayoon Kazerooni, Russ Angold, Nathan Harding, and other individuals associated with the Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory. The new company enters into a licensing agreement with the university to commercialize innovative exoskeleton technology developed at the lab. ... 2007: Berkeley ExoWorks becomes Berkeley Bionics™.

Berkeley Bionics is a private company, but it is very much an academic venture, founded on academic research in exoskeletons and other robotic efforts.

Very cool stuff... (unfortunate thumb image)

Advanced prosthetics is a difficult field; costs a lot to do this intensely interdisciplinary work. As long as the DoD continues to fund people pushing the boundaries we'll eventually produce lightweight, smart prosthetics with intuitive interfaces... at this point it appears that things are exciting at first but cumbersome for practical use, but its not hard to imaging miniaturization and commercialization these problems by V3.0 (so to speak).