I posted this idea 10 years ago at my own site: (lost on the internet it was called inventive: deep and interesting and was hosted in Geocities...) Among other ideas, I had this idea to have a contraption to assist the knees while running, enhancing the speed and load possible with running. You have a hydraulic or mechanical addition to your leg, so when you push up or down it gives much more power to the push. This would work best with special boots so you can jump out the window on third floor. Ever since: A. website lost. B. several movies made showing this concept. and C. found recent university study doing exactly that (with video...). See link below. Hope to find my site some day.

Anyways, in the meantime here are a few additions to this idea: A. Running together with your family synchronized at same speed. B. Hopping mode (like a frog). C. Personal airbag for runner's safety. D. A much simpler device with no hydraulics, just mechanical, so after you pick up a fridge, you fix it in mid air, and can stay there for an hour. (or release your knees, and go home) . This one would work with a tightening screw.

Please see the links below for a better description.

Moshe Flam (pashute = Hebrew for SIMPLE) // NASA made a $1M pen that works without gravity. // The cosmonauts went to outer space with a pencil.
-- pashute, Jun 22 2002

artificial muscle http://ndeaa.jpl.na...EAP-Newsletter.html
(not what I was looking for but interesting too) [pashute, Jun 22 2002]

another one I wasn't looking for http://www.callisto...2000/PDF/Fl_106.pdf
PDF file showing artificial assistance to muscles... [pashute, Jun 23 2002]

Finally found it! Yobotics' Leg Amplifier http://yobotics.com/index.html
A leg amplifier. They have video showing it working. I envisioned families running with it synchronized by radio. [pashute, Jun 23 2002]

hydraulic pogo stick http://www.post-gaz...528bowgohealth2.asp
I would call my invention The Pogo Knee, much safer and easier to use... [pashute, Jun 23 2002]

Spring boots http://www.powerskip.de/mainpage.html
What I mentioned in my previous annotation. With a tip o' the hat to [DrBob] for the term. [phoenix, Jun 25 2002]

And in 2009: Honda LegAssist http://www.spacedai...or_elderly_999.html
Honda's LegAssist. I still have a simpler idea... [pashute, Aug 23 2009]

(?) Hey! Just found an old Geocities link page of mine http://www.geocitie...hute1/PRT_main.html
The bottom of the page has some interesting links to alt transportation. [March 2010: DRAT! I should have saved that page!] [pashute, Sep 02 2009, last modified Mar 11 2010]

An invention from my country! Yey! http://www.youtube....Fjg&feature=related
Gets a man walking [pashute, Mar 11 2010]

Calum, thanks. Yobotics site shows it all, so no need to explain further. Google did not exist. I'm sure site's still up somewhere. I Added the extra ideas to this. Besides you could use the same idea on the arms, so if you got someone really mad and they wanna punch you, you catch their hand and quietly return it to it's place.
-- pashute, Jun 23 2002


Seems to me the idea no longer counts as novel, even if you did think of it first.
-- DrCurry, Jun 23 2002


Your correct Dr. But besides the basics - I added many new parts to the idea (had 10 years to think about it). Moshe
-- pashute, Jun 23 2002


I have two of these that operate on cruise control. They're overridden by a sharp blow to the underknee area.
-- reensure, Jun 23 2002


There is a device (not the Yobotics one) that fits like a shoe, but acts like a giant leaf spring. One fits to each foot and they raise the user about 1' off the ground. They work by absorbing and returning the force of the user's touchdown. I can't find a link for it now, but I'll post one later if I find one.

That said, what good would an artificial knee do if all the remaining force would have to be absorbed by the foot-calf-thigh? I envision this device snapping a femur on its first run (pun not intended).
-- phoenix, Jun 24 2002


"Crassont!" Priceless.
-- waugsqueke, Jun 25 2002


Good idea. You'd definitely need spring loaded boots (Seven league boots?) to absorb the landing shock and assist with take-off, plus some form of mid air stabilisation - a big pair of vulture wings should do the trick.
-- DrBob, Jun 25 2002


Thanx phoenix!
-- pashute, Oct 21 2002


Still didn't give up, I'm hoping to make my own (with assistance from a friend who has a workshop and good hands)... I think my design will be simpler, lighter, and therefor cheaper.
-- pashute, Aug 23 2009


// // NASA made a $1M pen that works without gravity. // The cosmonauts went to outer space with a pencil. //

While that makes a good story, it appears to be entirely untrue. From the Wikipedia "Space Pen" article:

"There exists a common urban legend claiming that the Americans spent $11 million developing the Space Pen, and the Russians used a pencil.[1] In fact, NASA programs have used pencils (for example a 1965 order of mechanical pencils[1]) but because of the danger that a broken-off pencil tip poses in zero gravity and the flammable nature of the wood present in pencils[1] a better solution was needed.

"NASA never approached Paul Fisher to develop a pen, nor did Fisher receive any government funding for the pen's development. Fisher invented it independently, and then asked NASA to try it. After the introduction of the AG7 Space Pen, both the American and Soviet (later Russian) space agencies adopted it. Previously both the Russian and American astronauts used grease pencils and plastic slates."
-- spidermother, Aug 23 2009


Thanks spider! That was my company motto since 1999, and a graphic image of it is still hanging in my office, with a diagonal pencil down the middle, engraved with the company name and phone. In 2002 my parents were in the states and brought me a "space pen" as a birthday present. Now I have a continuation to the story. That's slow information propagation...
-- pashute, Sep 02 2009



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