Honda recently showed off it’s assisted walking unit. You simply straddle it as you would a bicycle, but it has ’shoes’ for you to place your feet. Then the unit senses your leg movements and assists the person’s leg movements. Think of it as a poor man’s version of the Iron Man suit. This is great for the elderly or those with weak knees or back that need help walking up stairs or squatting for long periods of time.

Note, this thing is not competing with military-grade exoskeletons like this bad boy.

For its first honest test in the real world, Honda is planning to role this out to the Honda automotive workers on the factory floor that need to kneel, bend and stress their knees and back a little too much throughout the day.

Now here’s my recommendations to take this device to the next level:

• Let the device provide assistance with bathroom breaks. I’m not going into details here, use your imagination
• Let NFL running backs use this to extend their careers a few extra years. Even better, start negotiating with the Olympic Committee to allow track and field events to leverage these legs
• Develop a lightweight swimmer’s version
• Make a mini-version that we can outfit our elderly pets with. It’s just not the same once they can no longer leap onto your bed, Rover and Kitty deserve something like this

As a great usage scenario to show its durability, Honda should task someone with climbing Mt. Everest with one of these. How cool would that be?

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