But will it get him out of the bath?
SPIDER-TROOP, Spider-troop, does whatever a spider troop can
Mad military boffinry agency DARPA has come up with the latest iteration of a fan-favourite tech – gecko-inspired climbing pads that will allow GI Joes to scale walls like Spider-Man. The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has used its Z-Man project to get the first known example of a human climbing a 25-foot (7 …
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Thursday 12th June 2014 03:36 GMT Frumious Bandersnatch
But will it get him out of the bath?
Unfortunately, the Internet has only 4 references to this, but with the aid of the appropriate Japanese chindogou (in this case, a ladder specifically designed for a spider to escape a slippery bath), the answer is "yes". (by themselves, the spider gloves, zey do nothing, though).
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Thursday 12th June 2014 04:56 GMT P. Lee
Re: "war-fighters"?!?
I'd suggest that the requirements to climb sheer walls in the air or at sea is somewhat limited.
Commandos climbing aboard a ship from sea-level perhaps.
The alternative might be to surgically attach these to sailors and then remove all the ladders from ships, making them difficult to commandeer by opposing forces.
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Thursday 12th June 2014 09:36 GMT auburnman
Re: "war-fighters"?!?
'Democracy Installation Technicians*' is the favoured euphemism of the internet - I'm surprised that the military PR hasn't tried to adopt this one.
*"Hello, Iraq here. I appear to be having some trouble with my recently installed Democracy, can you put me through to your support line?"
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 20:39 GMT Mark 85
Re: FLAW #1
You don't often see INTACT glass surfaces in a War Zone.
FTFY. Glass is the first thing to go either by explosions or bullets from attackers or broken out by defenders who don't want to get by the stuff.
IF this will work on brick, stone, concrete, wood, etc. then they're on to something useful. Not just military either.
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 17:36 GMT James 51
Was I the only one who saw this and immediately thought of applications in space? Imagine the sole of boots and gloves in spacesuits covered with this. New designs for tethers. Robots could use it too. Could be a good way to grab a satellite you wanted to do maintenance on. Instead of grabbing it with a robot arm, have the arm end in a pad of this stuff and put it against the best surface you can manage.
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 19:03 GMT Neil Barnes
Space sounds like an excellent location to use this[1]
Space is at least clean, at least most of the bits we've stuck up there are. I can't help feeling there's going to be a certain amount of dust and mud sticking to places you might want to climb while fighting.
[1] and in space, no-one can hear you scream if you fall off.
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 19:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
yet another device that only works well against it's own
so here we have a device that allows scaling of tall vertical urban surfaces. the likes of which are mostly to be found in Western Society.
Another weapon system that works best against the people who paid for it, and is useless against foreign threats. Not gonna use this to climb a single story mud hut or mountainsides.
Just like making weapons to "wound" (and theoretically remove that soldier and the buddies who haul him to safety) doesn't work when your enemy gives not a single f**k about his own casualties, or the casualties themselves have no self preservation built into their mission.
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 19:26 GMT Asylum Sam
He's climbing glass because...
it's the best surface to prove the tech works. Ever see a gecko fall off a rock? No, because it works on most surfaces, it's small scale surface interaction, so doesn't require the surface to be smooth. Nice flat sheets of the stuff on nice flat stiff boards that can have hand holds attached is just the simplest way to work with it.
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 20:04 GMT Chris G
Re: He's climbing glass because...
The effect is due to the Van der Waals quantum effect explained here http://faculty.washington.edu/bergs/Simon_Sponberg/Gecko_Adhesion.html
Quite a few people have been playing around with this for a number of reasons, including I suspect The Great cat burglar of Santiago de Compostela
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 21:22 GMT Chris G
Re: When this technology inevitably gets disseminated to law enforcement we get...
Just sitting here reading El Reg and a gecko ran across the window in front of me and caught a large juicy moth. Excluding the juicy moth it looked really cool, if I could get the pads from DARPA I'd consider getting Spidey 'jamas.
Who's gonna take the mick when you are running across their ceiling?
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Wednesday 11th June 2014 23:05 GMT Don Jefe
High Ground
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Thursday 12th June 2014 01:49 GMT John Gamble
Z-Man
Hmm. I wonder how the game company feels about DARPA using their name.
(I recommend Pandemic. Which does sound DARPA-like, now that I think of it.)