Bionic Olympics coming in 2016

[WYP]

The world's first cybathlon, an Olympics style event for bionic athletes, will be taking place in October 2016.

This event, taking place in Zurich Germany, will be to showcase and spur interest in human performance enhancing technologies ranging from bionic limbs, powered Exoskeletons and even brain to computer interfaces.

The technology which will be used here will be simply breathtaking, the video below will give a taste of what is to come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvKHrDXvUsM

The event organizer, Prof Robert Riener from the university of Switzerland, said this.

"The idea is that we want to push development of assistive technologies towards devices that patients can really use in everyday life."

"Some of the current technologies look very fancy but are a long way from being practical and user-friendly."

"We allow technology that has previously been excluded from the Paralympics. By making it a public event we want to get rid of the borders between patients, society and the technology community."

This event will showcase technologies that many of us may not have known existed and will certainly give us a peak at the future, a future where we could drive cars using only brainpower and where limbs could be replaced with user friendly, cybernetic limbs if the original is lost.

medals will be awarded during this event, both for the athletes that take part and the companies who created the tech that they will be using.

What do you guys think of this event? I for one look forward to seeing these technologies in action.

Source - BBC News and Cyberathlon

 

[Mr. Smith]

Robotics! Pilots! Exoskeleton! Can't wait!!!

Also, is the music Terminator?

 

[paulstung]

Wow, that sounds / look great. I grew up with a father you lost his left leg bellow the knee, when a drink driving nurse, of all people knocked him off his motorbike, when he was coming home from a night shift.

It's not an easy thing to do get up and compete, after such a knock, for some it is just as much of a battle picking yourself up again for a normal day to day life.

This sounds / looks great Technology used to help instead of just for fun. We all take for granted I think just doing a simple thing like turning on the tv, or making a brew, we forget to easily what some people are either going through, or have gone through just be able to do the menial task we take for granted.