Quote: Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:Eh... The Japanese tend to be like this when naming things like their companies. They'll jump on anything that's the least bit trendy.
Quote: WengFook wrote:A hoax would imply that the advertised product didn't actually exist, and a friend of mine who could really use such a thing would have
Quote: Evil Midnight Lurker wrote:Cruel? What makes you say that? it seems more tongue in cheek if its a hoax
...Either one of those red flags I could accept, but both? Is this article really a (very, very cruel) hoax?
--Sam
"This is graveness."
extremely harsh words to say about that.
--Sam
"One of these days, milkshake -- BOOM!"
"Cyberdyne was a fictional company that created highly advanced robotics and war machines!? AWESOME! Let's name our company after theirs!"
Kurisu, I think Valles has got the general gist. The robo-bed simply supplied additional things, such as advanced life-support for the elderly as well as
granting them locomotion. The cyberlegs merely provide locomotion.
Really, I can see the need for it here in Japan. Whenever I leave the base, I'm bound to see at least one person using crutches or some sort of wheel
chair because they're either old or disabled, and they always need assistance in getting around. Most people move about the Tokyo-and-vicinity area by
trains - trains that must move quickly and efficiently to keep things going. Trains that usually wind up so packed during rush-hours and holidays (all it
takes is a fireworks display, trust me) that you are literally packed in like sardines - thus no room for a fast-deploying wheel-chair ramp.
What happens instead is that you have to talk to the station personnel about having them bring out a folding ramp. They'll get it and quickly throw it in
place so the wheel-chair bound person quickly amble into the train, then they pull it out just before the doors close. Then they radio ahead to your
destination to inform them that they'll need the ramp at number-x car of number-y train. Sure enough, there'll be a a guy there waiting with another
folding ramp and the process repeats itself.
With something like these cyber legs, though, that whole song and dance can be circumvented entirely. People like the old man I saw on the train in the wheel
chair can walk on and off as they please. Of course, I would hate to see it lead to people getting even lazier. It's bad enough that America has the
highest percentage of obesity in the world - we don't want it to get worse or see Japan running a close second.