Becoming a real-life superhero, complete with powers, isn’t as far fetched as it once seemed, thanks to the quickly advancing technologies that are constantly under development. We’ve rounded up five of these technologies that you may soon see on the streets. Continue reading for more.
5. Spider-Man Gloves / Backpack
Utah State University “Ascending Aggies” team recently won first prize out of 33 teams in the Air Force’s contest to get four soldiers over a very tall wall. It’s the lead climber that’s the tricky part, see. The Ascending Aggies’ solution was to build a PVAC, or Personal Vacuum Assisted Climber. It’s frankly stunning how well that thing works.
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4. Bionic Eye
Spence has worked with a team of engineers to adapt an endoscope into a working in-socket video camera. It’s turned on by waving a magnet near it, at which point it will begin transmitting a wireless video signal to a handheld LCD viewer. Absolutely incredible.
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3. Invisibility Cloak
Scientists in Tokyo University, Japan, have invented a coat which makes those wearing it appear “invisible”. The coat is made with a special typ eof “retro-reflective material” that acts as a photographic screen. A camera exists behind the person who is wearing the coat and that camera reflects onto the coat so that the wearer appears transparent.
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2. Iron Man Repulsor Beam Weapon
On a rainy weekend last year, Patrick Priebe, a German lab technician and Iron Man fanatic who rewatches the film and its sequel every week, decided to build a compact yet powerful laser inspired by Tony Stark’s repulsor-beam weapon. In the U.S., the maximum strength for consumer laser pointers is typically five milliwatts; Priebe’s handheld laser is 1,000 milliwatts, enough to instantly blind anyone not wearing special safety glasses.
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1. XOS 2
Dubbed the XOS 2, the exoskeleton is used primarily to lift heavy objects, its ratio being that a 50 pound weight will feel like 3 when using the exoskeleton. Being designed for the military, the XOS 2 will give soldiers better mobility along with naturally being able to carry 200 pound weights on their backs with little to no effort.
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