Cyber-fashion

Nowadays a number of companies are investing in projecting and developing new devices for military purposes. Just like Internet was invented by the American Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA, project Arpanet) and then became very important in everyone’s life, so there should be no wonder if gadgets built for the army actually become part of our everyday lives.

There is no movie of the 007 saga in which the famous secret agent does not bring with him ordinary accessories that hide the most incredible technology.

The truth is that these remarkable gadgets do not belong exclusively to the movies’ world, like we are lead to think in first place; in fact many technologies created by Ian Fleming’s imagination, the author of the adventures of James Bond, were developed afterwards.

Another movie that caught my attention, with regards to the ability to show a kind of “cybernetics” that can be achieved in the years to come, is “Iron Man” (2008), played by Robert Downey Jr, based on the Marvel Comics’ character.Iron Man’s armour is not mere abstraction; everything that happens in the movie belongs to the world of possibility: it is not a coincidence that when the movie was released in the cinemas the inventor Steve Jacobsen, who works for the American company Sarcos, went public with the latest development about his “Exoskeleton”, a robotic armour for the soldiers of the future. Through some sensors that detect muscular impulses, control devices and hydraulic actuators, the Exoskeleton would be able to give to a soldier strength and agility way superior than normal human ability. In the next 8-10 years the US Army is hoping to be able to provide its forces with this and many other cyber technologies.

Currently many companies are engaged in projecting and developing new inventions for military purposes: high-tech gloves to give instructions via wireless, helmets provided with a built-in camera and watch-sized computers are only a few examples of the modern military equipment that many researchers are working at.

If these wearable technologies are spreading in the military field, it does not mean that there might be a bigger market for wrist-computers or jacket with solar panels to charge your mobile while you walk.

Just like Internet was born for military purposes, from the Arpanet project, and then became an important part of everyday life, we should not be surprised if gadgets built for the army become objects that we use on a daily basis.

In the near future it might be very common to see managers and business-women wearing expensive sunglasses provided with some sort of chip or antenna to receive information, ties and handbags with solar panels to charge their blackberries.

If you want to know more:

http://www.biorobotics.it/evryon.html (in English - research project on robotics established by the EU)

http://www.cyberdyne.jp/english/ (in English- Japanese cybernetics company)

http://www.sarcos.com/ (in English – American robotics company)

http://www.rallypoint.info/ (in English – American military-robotics company)

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Translated by Saul Bassanello