What happens when science catches up to all that cool technology we've seen in movies? Are bizarre
Hollywood creations simply fiction or a sign of things to come? Here, Switched presents a collection of famous gadgets from your favorite films and tells you when, or if, you'll see them in reality. The answers might surprise you.
Iron Man Suit
In the recent blockbuster 'Iron Man,' Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, a billionaire defense industry inventor who builds a suit that gives him extreme strength, an array of weapons, and the ability to fly. Surprisingly, calling it standard comic book fare would a mistake.
According to an article from Popular Science, an inventor named Steve Jacobsen and his company, Sarcos, are working on an exoskeleton for the military that would allow soldiers to pick up hundreds of pounds without breaking a sweat. The XOS uses a series of sensors and hydraulics controlled by a computer that's designed to mimic and minimize the strain on the user's muscles.
In actuality, the suit resembles Sigourney Weaver's from 'Aliens' more than Iron Man's, and the drawbacks are that it can only run on batteries for 40 minutes at a time. But hey, it's one powerful step closer to real-life superheroes.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
raven siimony @ May 26th 2008 3:35PM
i think this is all crap and people are just trying to get our hopes up and then crush them! this world sucks and nobody helps anybody!!! whoever wants to reply can kiss this C YA!
Rick Badman @ May 26th 2008 4:17PM
The fighting suits in the book STARSHIP TROOPSERS were like what the article was talking about but not used in the movie of the same name. I have drawn fighting suits for years on my cable TV program and the ones that fly would have a small injection reactor to provide the needed power and a field displacement engine to allow the wearer to fly.
Dave @ May 28th 2008 9:02PM
You forgot one of the gadgets we're REALLY close to getting..
Ed Dillengers computer terminal desk with its touch sensitive screen from the movie TRON..
Thankfully, a computer like HAL isn't much of a reality since they can't seem to make a computer that has an independant mind of its own.
-- Dave.