OMG Digital Magazine July 23rd, 2015 - Vol 4 Issue 168 | Page 53

Panasonic gives
factory workers
superhuman
strength using an
exoskeleton
Robots have quickly replaced humans in
factories around the world because they are
more efficient, cost less in the long term, and
they never argue, get sick, or decide to leave.
But Panasonic is offering to enhance humans
in a factory setting rather than replacing
them by giving them an exoskeleton.
The exoskeleton has been developed by
Panasonic’s subsidiary company ActiveLink,
and it has one key purpose: to allow a worker
to carry significantly more weight without
impacting their movement or putting their
bodies under any additional stress. And
that’s what ActiveLink has achieved. The
Powerloader exoskeleton weighs just 13
pounds, but allows the wearer to carry an
additional 33 pounds of load.
Here’s a video of the prototype Powerloader
back in January 2013:
That cumbersome skeleton had become this
by April 2014, and what looks to be close to
the final design ActiveLink has now refined:
Panasonic believes that enhancing workers

in this way is only going to get more
popular in the years to come, with testing at
warehouses in Osaka, Japan giving positive
results. The exoskeleton is also being tested
for forestry work in Japan, and a much
larger version is in development that will
allow an individual to carry 220 pounds of
extra weight. I’m thinking Ed 209 minus the
weapons.
As with all new tech, these exoskeletons will
start out being quite expensive and restricted
to key sectors such as manufacturing
and military use. We’ve already seen
an exoskeleton to make all soldiers
sharpshooters, and another that forms a
chair that you wear. But eventually the tech
will get cheap and filter down. One day we
could all be choosing to wear exoskeletons
that enhance our movement and ability to
carry heavy objects. For individuals with a
disability or serious injury, it could mean a
much improved quality of life.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=FAKqaoV04MI

Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S2
tablets are thinner than the latest
iPad Air

Samsung has launched the
Galaxy Tab S2, a new Android
tablet that’s available in two
sizes and is only 5.6mm thick
— that’s 0.6mm less than
Apple’s iPad Air 2.
The Tab S2 comes in
your choice of 9.7-inch
(389g/13.7oz) or 8-inch
(265g/9.34oz) screen sizes,
with a 2048×1536 pixel
Super AMOLED display. The
larger variant is the same
size as the iPad Air 2, which
launched last October, and
manages to offer the same
resolution while weighing
1.6oz (46g) less.
Under the hood, you’ll find
an octa-core processor (four
1.9GHz cores and four 1.3GHz
cores) paired with 3GB
RAM and 32GB or 64GB of
onboard storage, depending
on the variant you choose.
There’s also a microSD slot

for an additional 128GB of
space.
The Android 5.0 Lollipop
device packs an 8-megapixel
rear
camera
and
a
2.1-megapixel
snapper
on the front. A fingerprint
reader lets you secure and
unlock the device with just a
touch of the home key, while
Samsung’s software layer
allows for multi-tasking and
pop-up windows for easy
switching between apps.
Those are some pretty
impressive specs and it’ll
be interesting to see if
Samsung’s new offering can
bring the fight to Apple in
the tablet space and win.
Both sizes of the Tab S2 will
be available globally this
August, in Wi-Fi and WiFi+LTE options. Samsung
hasn’t yet said how much
they will cost.