Weebs are now consumed with their catgirl fantasies nearly coming true.
While there are wearable tails made for (degenerate) humans, there aren’t any quite like this. Researchers at Japan’s Keio University have designed and built a tail made to legitimately increase the wearer’s balance and agility.
In nature, a number of animals use their tails for such a purpose. It’s readily observable, too; any pet owner with a dog or cat can tell you the sorts of crazy moves they can pull off. Granted, the Arque tail (as they’ve named it) won’t let you do quite the same sort of maneuvers, but it is meant to increase those capabilities in general. Notably, it’s designed around applications in a work environment; whereas an exoskeleton would help when lifting objects, the tail does much the same while being less cumbersome. The inventor also believes it’ll have its uses in VR as a haptic feedback device.
Design-wise, the tail isn’t patterned after the tails of dogs, cats, or even monkeys. Rather, the Arque is based off of the tail of a seahorse. It’s made from a series of interconnected plastic vertebrae, and it’s even, to a degree, modular. Counterweights or extensions can be added to increase balancing power. The artificial biomimicry of the tail is powered by four compressed-air-based artificial muscles. Right now, it’s sadly reliant on an external air compressor to power these muscles, but as technology moves forward for these artificial muscles, a battery-powered solution could soon become available.
Source: Gizmodo
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