Researchers develop backpack to ease heavy loads

Those crack backpack researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are at it again, New Scientist reports, following up their power-generating backpack with one designed simply to lighten the load on the wearer, apparently re-purposing some of the same technology from their earlier model. As with that backpack, the person wears a metal frame with the cargo suspend from it, in this case using elastic cords instead of springs. But instead of generating power from the resulting bouncing motion, the backpack simply takes advantage of the natural action to keep the load at a constant height as the person walks, supposedly reducing the energy required to carry a heavy load by up to 40%. Unlike wth the power-generating backpack, however (which was developed at the behest of the US Office of Naval Research) Larry Rome, the creator of this new bouncy backpack, looks to be thinking commercially from the get go, founding the "Lighting Packs" company with the full intention of taking 'em to market.

[Via Digg]

[Matt @ Dec 21st 2006 7:17PM]

Too bad it looks like shit.

[Daniel @ Dec 21st 2006 7:42PM]

I am a spamming troll, please spam me back: [e-mail]

[Mad Dick Bones @ Dec 21st 2006 7:53PM]

2 typos:
suspendED
WITH

two typos in one entry? do you spell check or proof-read at all? i would expect better from such a renowned blog.

[Seung-Hwan @ Dec 21st 2006 8:09PM]

To the idiots complaining about the aesthetics of this backpack, you should just keep your day jobs and stay the hell away from the academia.
For the more sensible readers, this sounds like a great invention. Surely soldiers and those who go on backpacking trips will benefit from something like this, as will students who have to carry heavy loads. Clearly the design is not aesthetically pleasing but that is not the point: these are likely physicists and engineers designing the product solely on its functions, not the looks. Looks can be improved later.

[Richibald @ Dec 21st 2006 8:14PM]

Who cares what the thing looks like, the thing works! Brilliant idea the pretty it up phase can come later. Kudos to the guy who had the chutzpah to pull it off.

[minute @ Dec 21st 2006 8:31PM]

Yep, it does look a bit strange, but if you've hike more than 10km with a full load, you won't care. You can always put a bag over it while you are in public view if you are that fashion conscious.

graeme
http://www.icooltools.com

[Paul @ Dec 21st 2006 9:23PM]

If you're going on a hiking trip then only like 2-6 people are going to end up seeing it.
Sure they might laugh at you at the start of the hike, but halfway up the mountain it will be you who has enough breath left to still laugh.

[Chris @ Dec 21st 2006 9:29PM]

seems to that this moves the load furthur away from your back as well, which makes it harder to carry more.

[Jake @ Dec 21st 2006 9:55PM]

Those idiots are the ones that drive consumer spending. Yes, looks matter, if you want to sell it. I am sure looks can be achieved once marketers enter the process.
The concern of the load distance from the carrier is also valid.
I really hope it ends up with a larger pack, too. Soldiers and campers need much more space that that pack has. I have much more capacity in my laptop backpack and so does my wife's purse.

[Ashton Tibbitt @ Dec 22nd 2006 12:30AM]

somehow, i remeber seeing this A LONG TIME AGO!! it looks strangely familiar....


idk


maybe just deja vu..

[Ben Swain @ Dec 22nd 2006 7:50AM]

I'm not sure about this idea. As a backpacker, you generally try to make sure that things don't bounce. That requires more energy, especially if the object is on the way down when you are on the way up. A bouncing load doesn't reduce weight, your legs are still carrying the same load. You lose energy to the elasticity of the bungee, you're expending more kinetic energy. Call me a skeptic.

[PJK @ Dec 22nd 2006 7:59AM]

A great practical feat of engineering, we need more simple useful inventions like this.

[kadajawi @ Dec 22nd 2006 9:40AM]

I guess they will hire an industrial designer to make it look good before they are going to sell it, unless the military is their target. But am I the only one who is reminded of steadycams? It may not work the same (I think steadycams have some gyro stuff so that the camera is steady when handheld, but if it removes shocks and the up and down movement of the camera... mhhh... :D ).

[Cameron @ Dec 22nd 2006 9:08AM]

I'm with Ben on this. The last thing you want when you're anywhere sketchy is something bouncing around ...

[h @ Dec 22nd 2006 9:41AM]

let me give it a try. Tying things down in your backpack is good since it won't bounce against you. Tied down, objects do not bounce in relation to our bodies. But as we walk or hike, our bodies still bounce relative to the ground. Thus the regular tied down backpack, is still bouncing, just bouncing with us.

With this backpack, we still carry the same weight, but we are spending less energy since the backpack is bouncing less in relation to the ground. It may seem like it's bouncing around behind you but it just sort of shows how much we bounce.

[Cameron Campbell @ Dec 22nd 2006 10:05AM]

Ok, I'll buy that, by my point remains that if it's bouncing independent of me then it is bouncing in a way that might throw me off balance. I hardly need much in the way of help in that department.

*

[qwert @ Dec 22nd 2006 11:25AM]

And how does this make my bag lighter, like in reducing the weight? the only thing that i can see ist a lot of metal and stuff, that adds weight.
when carrying load for long distances i want to make shure to carry as little as possible, and some steampunk behmoth on my back wont help with that.

also at the monent it will get caught at everything when walking throught the woods. I idont wnat to think of all that could go possibly wrong when using this thing for mountaineering.

qwer

[Seung-Hwan @ Dec 22nd 2006 11:38PM]

Look guys.
These physicists know how to work the physics better than most of you guys, unless you guys are physicists. Just because you have backpacking experience, it doesn't mean that you know anything at all about the physics behind this backpack. Also, obviously the absolute weight is not decreased unless we're talking about using antimatter of some sort.