Obviously, a system like this could prove invaluable for military personnel, labourers, hikers and fat, lazy geeks that don’t want their heart to explode while they walk to the kitchen for a Snickers and a Red Bull. Unfortunately, no pricing information or availability dates have been announced, but you can pre-order one now from the Berkley Bionics website. [Berkley Bionics via New Scientist]

We caught a quick glimpse of the Soft Pneumatic Exoskeleton before, but here inventor Che-Wei Wang demonstrates it on himself, explaining how the system gives added power to limbs at key moments. He can power it with a mini scuba tank or one of those CO2 cartridge for pellet guns, but the usage is limited by the capacity of gas you can carry. Ideal scenarios he says include hard landings—dudes involved in “parkour” street jumping could use it to avoid ripping up their kneecaps. Wang says future applications include a memory mode, where a famous athlete wears it to capture some signature manoeuvre that some punkass non-athlete can then copy, just by donning the same model exoskeleton and jacking the software. How’s that for Johnny Mnemonic meets The Matrix meets Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure? [CWWang.com; ITP 2008]

Using sensors attached to the skin, the suit supposedly moves effortlessly with your muscles and it has the capability of increasing your strength up to 10 times the norm. It also has a continuous operating time of about 2 hours and 40 minutes. As mentioned, the monthly rental fee has been set at US$1000 which includes US$300 for maintenance and upgrades. No word on whether or not they plan on selling these things outright, but I would be perfectly happy renting one and going all Hulk on my enemies for a month or so. [Cyberdyne via LovingtheMachine vie BotJunkie via Boing Boing Gadgets]