First, GM and NASA built the humanoid . Now, the two have teamed up again to create a Human Grasp Assist device. The K-Glove, a.k.a, Robo-Glove, a.k.a. a real-life Nintendo Power Glove, gives the user the power of robots. You could be like . In space! And not horrible! And without Fred Savage! How bad is that?
NASA and GM may seem like a strange mashup until you remember that both are trying to find ways to accomplish their tasks without the use of pesky humans. This desire to push our fleshy masses out of the job of building cars or conducting experiments originally manifested itself in the form of — the creepy gold space man who looks vaguely like a Daft Punk groupie.
Since public pressure and current technological limitations/cost benefits make a full transition from human workers to robots difficult in the short term, both NASA and GM are doing the smart thing by turning human workers into robots.
GM says the can augment human strength and reduce repetitive stress injury by grasping objects with an additional ten pounds of force.
This makes holding and manipulating a tool — whether focusing a telescope mirror in space or attaching bumpers to a Malibu in a factory on earth — significantly easier. The device itself weighs only two pounds without the battery pack and, as demonstrated in the video above, won't crush another human's hand.
Unless, of course, that's what you want to do.