want to be half-human, half-robot?

And set a “personal best” in your bicep curls?

Engineers in Japan are perfecting a wearable power suit that amplifies human strength to help lift hospital patients or heavy objects.

Driven by portable batteries, micro air pumps and small body sensors that pick up even the slightest muscle twitch, the Stand-Alone Wearable Power Assist Suit is designed to help nursing home workers lift patients of up to 180 pounds while cutting the amount of strength required in half, project researcher Hirokazu Noborisaka told LiveScience today.

At Wired Magazine’s NextFest new-technology forum here, researchers demonstrated walking and lifting weights in the 66-pound suit, which was developed at the High-Tech Research Center of Japan’s Kanawaga Institute of Technology.

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New Power Suit Amplifies Human Strength | LiveScience

These have to evolve into the mechanized Mobile Infantry suits of the Robert Heinlein novel Starship Troopers. (Not the lame movie of the same name which did not do justice to the fantastic book.)

(via Gadling)