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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @06:24AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @06:24AM (#419304)

    have you considered the effrt involved to stay upright? in this thing you're sitting down.
    also, you can use hands as well as feet, and only use belly/back for useful work (not for standing up).

  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday October 27 2016, @08:45AM

    by Nuke (3162) on Thursday October 27 2016, @08:45AM (#419327)

    have you considered the effrt involved to stay upright? .... also, you can use hands as well as feet

    Humans require very little effort to be standing up - just tiny balance adjustments and cetainly not causing 90% of the effort to walk upstairs.

    The guy in the video is not using his arms to pull himself up (watch his arm muscles), he is only shifting his hands upwards for the next "push" with his legs. And I believe that most of that "push" is being done by tensioned ropes attached to some sort of spring or counterweight behind the scenes. Either the inventors are making a poor job of describing and demonstrating this device, or being less than honest, or it is being reported to us poorly.

    Only fit people can lift their own weight with their arms held above them, even when held straight, let alone bent like in the video. Try it.