Body Master

One of the first "Correcting Devices" by ZBIGNIEW LIBERA. Two body-building devices and an advertising poster, adjusted to the body size of 7-9 years old boys. Fully functional, modeled on authentic devices, the only difference being very light weights here made from paper. This toy replicates an actual body-building machine, but the only thing that can be trained here is the child's psyche.

C-Leg

Powered prosthesis is about to become a new specialty of vehicle design or maybe rather fashion design?

Manufacturer & Newscientist:

Sensors Provide Real-Time Gait Information
Data is taken 50 times a second by a joint angle sensor. While a force-sensing strain gauge pylon is used to determine phase of gait and walking speed of the user.

Unique Software Analyzes the Gait Information
We've designed our software to determine the best resistance and setting. The software considers the real-time sensor data to establish which phase of gait the user is in...and
algorithms based on thousands of gait cycles are built into our software.

Microprocessor-Controlled Hydraulics
Gives optimal response during swing phase. Not a step early, not a step late. Flexion and extension motors are continuously adjusted to create optimal stability during stance phase.

Resulting in:

• greater freedom of movement
• changing speed
• reacting to uneven terrain
• tackling slopes
• descending stairs step-over-step

Wearable Motocycle

Skele-Cycle: Thirty-six pneumatic muscles control this wearable motorcycle, taking commands from the rider’s body movements. Nick Kaloterakis; design © Jake Loniak at Art Center College of Design

Popsci

Invention: Exoskeleton power steering

Last year saw the first handful of prototype robotic exoskeletons go on sale to the public – with the most advanced being the full-body HAL robot suit made by Japanese firm Cyberdyne.

The technology is still far from mature, however, and one of the biggest problems facing the builders of the strength-boosting outfits is how they know how to help the wearer.

HAL and most other suits use electrodes to measure the electrical activity in a person's muscles. That information is used to ensure a suit helps rather than hinders – by moving in just the same way as the user but with greater strength.

Cyberdyne claims that HAL can magnify a person's strength by between two and 10 times.

But this technique can have difficulties measuring and interpreting electrical activity in the body – in particular, the way electrical activity varies between individuals, and the confusing electrical signals given off by many muscles in one part of the body moving at once.

Now Japanese car giant Honda is patenting a different approach for its own exoskeletons. The company's suit senses the force and velocity of a limb in motion and then attempts to match the movement using whatever force is necessary.

The approach is similar to that used in the electric power steering of cars, where sensors detect the motion of the steering wheel and translate that to the car's wheels using servos.

The approach should be easier to implement and more reliable for a varied user base than monitoring muscles' electrical activity, Honda's patent claims.

The patented idea may already be in use in this spindly lower-body exoskeleton that is designed to assist walking and crouching in elderly or weakened people. Sensors in shoes detect the wearer's movements and help the system take some of the load.

Newscientist