For every time you’ve been just a few inches too far from the outlet, Asahi Kasei Fibers has a solution — the Japanese manufacturer has created the Roboden, a USB cable that can stretch, bungee cord-style, to 1.5 times its length. That’s also the elasticity of the human skin, which Asahi Kasei surely knows, as it’s the manufacturer of Spandex. That means the cables could be used to create more lifelike robots, which could have Roboden wires under their skin, and have a human-like range of motion without needing tons of cable slack to accomodate their movement. No word on when we’ll be seeing these on the market, but keep your eyes peeled for stretchy power cords, and robots doing yoga just because they can.
Roboden elastic USB cables could stretch into humanoid robots
Asahi Kasei Fibers has created the Roboden elastic cable, which could be built into the skin of humanoid robots and used to power gadgets.
Asahi Kasei Fibers has created the Roboden elastic cable, which could be built into the skin of humanoid robots and used to power gadgets.
is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.
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