@FredicvsMaximvs: so...you're implying there is a purpose for all those AOL CD's? Great, now the world is gonna come to an end.

Geisrud

...
Batman: You weigh a little more than a hundred and eight.
Vicki Vale: Oh really!
Batman: Let's go.

Geisrud

The round part is the place where you put all those AOL CDs you used to get in the mail - they're made of polyester, right? Sure! The rest of the unit is primarily batteries for when it's time to melt the CD and spin them into super-strong ropey goodness.

There's plenty of room here for a joke about AOL and connectivity, perhaps a land line, but I can't for the life of me think what it is...

FredicvsMaximvs

Didn't Angelina Jolie have a purse that did this in Mr. & Mrs. Smith?

I'd hope the descender mechanism would have some kind of system that measured the weight on the line and then adjusted speed accordingly.

GeekyNerdGuy

@Geisrud: Agrreed. I don't trust those plastic looking rings. It may have worked in Drop Zone w/Wesley Snipes,Gary Busey, and Parker Luis, but give me good ol fashioned metal proudly cast by 7 year old Asian children.

Git Em SteveDave seeks Lego build buddy. How about you?

sex.

tehdahl

Does the woven "liquid polyester" come in powder blue? And, of course, when will the version with an iPod dock slot come out?

VideoVampire

@Camaro02: Just what I was about to say - need to rip out the motor from your Dyson and do a mash up.

txpunk

I'm a paranoid fellow, and since pre-9/11, I had always said if I worked in a high rise, I.E., the twin towers, I would either own a parachute or a length of rope and a harness. My theroey was in the off chance there was a fire, I was better off "BASE" jumping than regular jumping, or with the rope, I could repel to the ground, or at least past the "blocked" floors to a clear floor to escape.

This seems like a good idea, but too much seems to be able to go wrong with this. I am very concerned with the mounting of the line. You don't want to descend face first, but rather back first.

Git Em SteveDave seeks Lego build buddy. How about you?

Not diggin' that excuse for a Class III harness at all, and I'm not sure I want to trust my life to "woven liquid polyester" whatever that is.

Your basic rappelling gear has served me well thus far in life.

Geisrud

Something seems to be missing...
'Rapid Descender' i.e. Falling or Jumping...
I would be more interested in the 'Rapid Ascender' It seems like it would be easier to market.

Camaro02

Think of the additional fun that could be had with something like this, aside from saving you from falling off a cliff (which could be a catch-22 as the additional weight from this pack added on to the weight of the packs you might already be carrying could be what causes you to lose balance and fall,) there are a couple other things I can think of.

1. Wearing it to a club/bar and snagging chicks with it.
2. Wearing it to a football game and messing with the visiting team.
3. Shoplifting.

Hectorvex

Does it come with a blue spandex outfit to make me look like the X-Men mannequin?

Mondoz

@Subterfuge: It's a fancy term for rope.

This is a pretty cool idea, but a couple questions come to mind. How heavy do you have to be for it to work? If you're too light, it won't uncoil. If you're too heavy, it won't slow you down enough to keep you from splatting when you land. Ideally it could be adjustable, and not have to be custom fitted.

Gann

I want, no need. Word is my building flies around during "seismic events". I about shit myself when the window washers shake the building.

SeattleTed

Which is all well and good until some joker on the 25th story swaps all their vests for the ones on the 42nd story.

hakubak

So, how do you unhook the cable once your down?

Lodlaiden_

What is woven liquid polyester? Is it stored as liquid and is woven and dried as it is released, like a spider or silly string, or something else?

Subterfuge

So many unanswered questions. Basically, all we have is "look! some egress thingy!". I wonder why it is rated for 2 tons? Is that just showing off the safety factor or is there really some use to attaching 2 tons of equipment 250 meters in the air?

Is this thing re-usable? ie, does it rewind itself or do you have a buy a new one once it unwinds?

Alluvian

@Alluvian: The problem is always that weight rating is not truly relevant for ropes or descending equipment - it should be in newtons (force) since when you are dropping, you generate force. Look at climbing ropes: they're rated in kN (i.e. New England Equinox 10.2 is rated 9.8 kilonewtons).

However, since people have no idea what a kilonewton is, weight rating is more approachable. You would DEFINITELY want something that can hold a ton to catch you when you've rapidly descended for 100 feet - remember the formula - F=ma so your mass of 180lb times 9.8m/s^2 would be quite a bit by the time you hit the limit of that descender. . .

If it's an emergency device, then it wouldn't be re-usable. It would likely have a braking device in it and would need to be re-set.

socalboomer

Wouldn't it be smarter to put the cable mechanism into the building? That way it could be calibrated to the correct height, include sensors to determine weight, and be lighter to strap on. You just wear the harness. There would have to be specific hardpoints on the building already for the proposed vest to work. Just replace them with cable feeders. Even better, they could retract for multiple uses.

hakubak

There already are devices that do this. On off-shore oil rigs one of the safety devices is a harness with a an orange descender on it. You just climb in, clip it on (or just clip it on) attach it to a decent point and it automatically dispenses "rescue tape". The unit has one time use flat line that will get you down in hurry, but in a controlled manner. It's kind of a last ditch safety device, as survival in the ocean is, particularly under an exploding oil rig, is limited.

I saw a safety video on it along with how to strap into the "life boats" that drop several stories into the water.

DeadWriter

@Alluvian: I wonder why it is rated for 2 tons?

Rescue and climbing equipment is rated for maximum dead (unmoving) mass and/or force equivalent. For carabiners, one might have one rated at 20kN ~ if I do the math comes out to about 2 tons of force. It seems a little light, especially if one remembers that one accelerates at 9.2 m/s2, it doesn't take long for a person to gain the force equivalent of hundreds of kgs*.

*1kg = 2.2lbs

DeadWriter

My dream of becoming Webstor from He-Man is one step closer to reality.

butaneko

@Git Em SteveDave seeks Lego build buddy. How about you?: That sounds good, but you have to connect that cable to something. That something has to be pretty specific - a "hard point." Without disignated hard points, idiots will be strapping themselves to ceiling tile supports, desk legs or water coolers.

hakubak

@hakubak: It might be, but what if where you attached it was blocked? Or what if the path down was blocked? This model would allow you to hook up anywhere, so you can avoid all those problems.

Git Em SteveDave seeks Lego build buddy. How about you?

the most obvious consequence of this invention is that the term "defenestration" will lose its menace and become an antiquated phrase much like the phrases "damn your eyes!" and "you've made a cuckold of me!"

smeto

@socalboomer: UMM lbs is already a measure of force not a measure of mass.

Nemesisesq

@socalboomer: Actually, being rated at 2 tons is probably more of a gimmick than to account for the amount of force. Whether it be a ton of bricks or a 75 kg person, the acceleration, 9.8 m/s^2, remains constant for all parts of the descent. So the force of tension exerted by the rope is way more than enough to sustain a person of average weight.

kamsolusar