clipped from: www.cnn.com   
  • Story Highlights
  • Honda on Friday unveiled a wearable robotic gadget to help people walk
  • The experimental device reduce stresss on the knees and help people get up steps
  • It looks like a bicycle seat connected by mechanical frames to a pair of shoes
  • The system has a computer and sensors so it responds to a person's movements
    • This wearable assisted-walking gadget from Honda is designed to reduce stress on the knees.

    The need for such mechanical help is expected to grow in Japan, which has one of the most rapidly aging societies in the world.

    Cyberdyne has begun renting out in Japan a belted device called HAL, for "hybrid assistive limb," that reads brain signals to help people move about
    Honda has shown a similar but simpler belted device. It has motors on the left and right, which hook up to frames that strap at the thighs
    That device, being tested at one Japanese facility, helps rehabilitation programs for the disabled, encouraging them to take steps
    Honda has been carrying out research into mobility for more than a decade, introducing the Asimo humanoid in 2000