CYBORGS ARE PRACTICALLY HERE!

I know, I know -- you're all wondering how I of all people won a rainy, technical crit. Well I'm almost done with my writeup, but to keep you entertained (or horrified -- depending on whether you believe the robot uprising will be peaceful or violent), here's a new video about iron-man exoskeleton suits, soon to be available at your local Target Superstore (don't worry, the American version will be enlarged to accommodate up to a 55 inch waist, unlike this tiny-Japanese-guy prototype).



I'm pretty sure I could put out about 750 watts at threshold with one of these on.

I must say the choices of names used in this suit are pretty poor from a "let's keep the humans calm about the oncoming robot uprising" perspective. HAL was of course the name of the intelligent computer that killed all those dudes in 2001, and Cyberdyne Systems was the name of the fictional company that invented all those cyborg killing machines in the Terminator movies. Oh...wait....never mind -- the Cyberdine company that just cranked out the robot exoskeleton spells its name with an "i" instead of a "y." And the HAL computer in the movie was actually called the HAL 9000. Thank goodness -- those would have been creepy coincidences, don't you think?

UPDATE: Wow -- apparently you already can purchase one of these gizmos. They only cost $4200. I know guys with wheels that cost less than that.

ANOTHER UPDATE!!!: Holy caveman -- now look at these:

Legs On: Honda's Walking Assist Devices from Gizmodo on Vimeo.