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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.
(Score: 2) by gidds on Thursday October 27 2016, @01:34PM
I'd like to see someone use it to bring a cup of tea (or coffee, whatever's your poison) up/downstairs. (Let alone a trayful. Or anything else, for that matter. I guess you could fit some sort of storage for non-fragile items, but there doesn't seem to be room, and you'd have real trouble with anything big and/or heavy.)
So I guess this isn't going to completely replace stairs or lifts (or at least stairwells or shafts). And if you have those anyway, then I can't see this justifying itself in addition.
On the plus side, it looks like it exercises many more parts of the body than stairs, so it might be good for general fitness. (Though that seems to contradict the claims of 90% less 'effort'…)
And I'm all for people looking at new ways to do things. There are always improvements to be made, and sometimes big advances too! (Even if this isn't one of them…)
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