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Exosuit: DARPA is currently funding the development of a 13 lb suit that does 15-20% of the leg's work when walking. Its intended purpose is to enable soldiers to walk further distances before tiring out, and it's expected to be fully delivered within a year (see examples page) [1].
Future: These "suits" (or at least clothing or underclothing with the same function) will find their way into the market in the near future- perhaps within 10 years. This innovation could have practical functions, such as assisting people with arthritis, elderly people, people recovering from injury, and so on. It could also be used to make people doing labor work (such as construction workers) more efficient and less injury-prone, thus protecting companies from being sued.
Evidence: It's been a trend throughout history that technology invented for the military makes its way into the consumer market.
Here is a list of well-known consumer products that were initially invented for the military:
- GPS, telegraphy, penicillin, microwaves, air travel, nylon, canned food, Jeep, wristwatch, drones [2], walkie-talkies, super-glue, duct tape, Silly Putty, digital photography, VR, EpiPen, early internet, deep web, nuclear energy [3], Kleenex, plastic surgery, Kotex [4]
Since the U.S. spends over 50% of the national budget on the military, this trend of innovation is likely to continue.
1. American Society for Engineering Education, "Wearable Technology: POWER SUIT," https://www.jstor.org/stable/43747066?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=wearable&searchText=technology&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dwearable%2Btechnology%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dcontrol&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-4653%2Ftest&refreqid=search%3A1000a7298730586109a0eb27166fa594&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents (September 19th, 2019)2. Les Shu, "GPS, drones, microwaves and other everyday technologies born on the battlefield,"https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/modern-civilian-tech-made-possible-wartime-research-development/ (September 19th, 2019)3. Noah Caldwell, "11 Incredible Products That Were Really Invented by the U.S. Military," https://www.mic.com/articles/86489/11-incredible-products-that-were-really-invented-by-the-u-s-military (September 19th)4. Tina Donvito and Jacopo della Quercia, "20 Cool Everyday Things That Were Actually Designed for WWI," https://www.rd.com/culture/everyday-things-made-for-world-war-i/ (September 19th, 2019)
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