Long-time Slashdot reader Ken McE shared a video of a new working prototype for a wearable tail.
Engadget reports:

There are lots of companies who make wearable tails for humans, but they’re usually for cosplay or other entertainment pursuits. Researchers at Keio University in Japan have created a wearable animated tail that promises to genuinely augment the wearer’s capabilities — not just appearance — by improving their balance and agility.

The easiest way to understand what inspired this creation is to watch a video of monkeys effortlessly leaping from tree to tree. Their tails not only serve as an additional limb for grasping branches but also help them reposition their bodies mid-flight for a safe landing by shifting the monkey’s center of balance as it moves. The Arque tail, as it’s been named, does essentially the same thing for humans, although leaping from the highest branches of a tree isn’t recommended just yet…. Inside the tail are a set of four artificial muscles powered by compressed air that contract and expand in different combinations to move and curl the tail in any direction.

Though the researchers have built a prototype, their video describes it as a “proposed tail” — specifically, an artificial biomimicry-inspired anthropomorphic one. So how exactly would the tail controlled externally? The video describes its ability “to passively provide forces to the user’s body based on the estimated center of gravity of his posture in order to correct his body balance.” So basically, the tail would have a mind of its own, like the arms of Doctor Octopus?

“We also demonstrated a different approach for using the tail other than equilibrium maintenance, which is to change the center of mass of the user to off-balance his posture.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – A Wearable Robotic Tail Could Improve Your Balance