Iron Man...For Real

Bekah and I are not strangers to spending time at the hospital, we both have family members with health issues and we seem to be at one hospital or another every month or so. These visits have started discussions about health care and other medical issues. One of these topics has been around technology and prosthetics. While there have been advancements made with the use of new materials like Carbon Fiber, it does seem like things haven't changed much in my lifetime anyway. We have such an abundance of computer technology, robotics, space age materials but I haven't really seen anyone with a biomechanical limb or anything very advanced yet. Well why not?

There are plenty of comics and anime that have long projected a future of human/robot interaction, like
Neon Genisis, the Gundam series and we are all familar with the recent Iron Man movie where Tony Stark builds his own powered armored suit with all sorts of tech gadgets and super strength.



During my normal interweb rounds this morning I saw a reference to Cyberdyne's HAL, I remember seeing something about this a long time ago but started looking into it a little further. From an article I found it looks like they are currently building the production facilty and expect to be ready for production in Oct of this year.


Well a few more google searches and it turns out that a company right here in SLC is responsible for development of the XOS suit, which in my opinion is the closest thing to an actual Iron Man suit out there and from their posts it looks like that's exactly where it's headed pretty quick.



Obviously this is all being funded for military applications which I can understand since they have the funds and resources but at the same time this technology could do amazing things for people with disabilities. Everything from physical thereapy tools for post op or trauma patients, to biomechanical fingers, arms and legs to full body suits for paralysis patients who could once again be fully mobile and not constrained to a lame wheel chair. I could also see this for people suffering with MS or other degenerative diseases. These devices could restore and provide a much higher quality of life for these people. So I find it a bit backward that we are developing this for purposes of war which will only harm life instead of using it to restore life. Money rules all I guess but I just hope this starts trickling down quickly to the people who could really benefit from it.

I guess life imitates art and we are just brining robot wars to fruition but hopefully some people will benefit from this before the atmosphere get's scorched and we all have to live underground because the sentinel's will get us. Don't say I didn't warn you.