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posted by martyb on Wednesday October 26 2016, @08:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the must-be-empty-handed dept.

Humans are said to have evolved from an ancestor that once swung through the trees to get about, free to move through the environment in almost any direction. But today, in our modern high-rise environment, if you simply want to go up or down, it's probably fair to say we've actually devolved. Stairs, elevators, and lifts all take up precious space within buildings, and they're expensive, complicated, or require endless maintenance. Now a new human-powered system prototype dubbed Vertical Walking has been developed that requires just ten percent of the effort needed to climb stairs, but can easily move a person up a vast number of floors.

[...] Designed by the Rombaut Frieling lab in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Vertical Walking uses a system of upright rails that incorporate pulleys and a clever gripping system to allow a user to incrementally move between floors in a building. Claimed to require less than 10 percent of the effort needed to climb stairs, and with no other external energy input needed, the creators assert that the prototype has been successfully proven by a wide range of people, including an amputee and an MS sufferer.

A novel way to move between floors.


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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday October 26 2016, @10:31PM

    by Nuke (3162) on Wednesday October 26 2016, @10:31PM (#419186)

    It is abundantly obvious that you did not read TFA and neither did the idiot who modded you up.

    I think it is you who did not read (or understand) TFA, nor understood the GP's comment - the point of which was that many people can be going down a staircase at the same time, but only one at a time can use this new invention.

    I have just modded the GP up too.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2016, @11:23AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2016, @11:23AM (#419796)
    Well the proponents of this stupid contraption can just jump together and reach the bottom faster while using a lot less of their own energy.

    The fact is in those skyscrapers very few use the stairs to go up. They use the elevators to go up and down. They mainly use the stairs to go down during emergency drills, and once in a while in actual emergencies.

    And in some higher security buildings you can use the stairs but once you use them you have to go all the way down - the doors lock and can't be open from the stair side. So you can't get back inside unless someone (a smoker perhaps ;) ) has breached security by jamming a door so it doesn't lock.

    p.s. people do fall down stairs and get injured and sometimes killed, but if you screw up in this contraption the death rate might be higher.