legs
Design
Bionic Animal Legs Are Built For Theatre and/or Enchanted Woodlands
11:40PM Mark Wilson | Human legs are just so bourgeois. You’ll never catch me wearing the last millennium’s leg fashions again. More »
Science
5-Year-Old Amputee Fitted with High Performance Carbon Fibre Legs
1:50AM Mark Wilson | In 2005, Ellie May Challis lost all of her limbs to meningitis. In 2009, she’s become the youngest person ever fitted with carbon fibre legs. More »
Gadgets
Guy Gets Tracking Bracelet Attached to His Fake Leg by World’s Dumbest Cop
9:40AM Adam Frucci | A man who had a tracking bracelet attached to his ankle after getting busted for marijuana possession outwitted the cops in one simple way: he had a fake leg. Oh, cops. More »
Gadgets
Leg Monitor Turns Your Restless Legs Into Jittery Music
6:45AM Adam Frucci | At first, you might think that a device that monitors your jumpy restless legs would be designed to cure you of restless legs syndrome. You would be wrong. More »
Robots
Honda’s Groin-Threatening Robo-Legs Demonstrated On Video
8:18PM John Herrman | Why Honda took a few days to seed a video of their potentially emasculating robotic legs is beyond me, but here it is: a faceless man running the “Walking Assist Device” through its strides (ha, ha). My fears of testicular danger are only partially mitigated, and the fact that the legs have a hilariously feminine gait doesn’t offer much comfort. That said, they do seem to work: the demonstrator never falls down, and appears to exert very little energy, even during deep squats. [Akihabara] More »
Robots
Honda Robo-Legs Help Mobility at the Expense of Fertility
9:11PM John Herrman | Honda’s first foray into robotising old peoples’ haunches looked pretty tame, but this new one, on which geriatrics are supposed to mount like some sort of meat trophy, feels like a glimpse into a horrible, dystopian future where up is down, right is wrong and grandmas and grandpas amble through Sears on mechanised rectal steeds instead of walkers. The machine, which I’m 90% sure is just the missing half of this Battle Droid from Attack of the Clones, is more a passive support device than it is a set of active robot limbs, though it does have a small electric motor. More »
Robots
Robot Legs Not So Different from Our Own
12:15AM Mark Wilson | Humans make walking look easy, but that’s only because walking is a very efficient process in which our tendons and muscles work in conjunction to store and release 40% more energy than we exert. Obviously robots want in on this action. Oregon State University researchers have developed a leg that uses motors to drive a fiberglass spring-loaded knee joint. The result is a more efficient robot leg that operates more like a human leg. [NewScientist] More »
Science
