U.S. Navy Wants to Build Gordon Freeman's Power Suit, Sort of...
U.S. Navy Wants to Build Gordon Freeman's Power Suit, Sort of...
November 4, 2008
Gizmodo reports that the Office of Naval Research has funded a team at the University of California San Diego to begin developing what amounts to a power suit similar to that worn by Gordon Freeman, protagonist of Valve's uber-popular Half-Life series:
The system will monitor a few biomarkers for deviations from safe levels, at which point it will automatically medicate its wearer...
...the military applications are what's exciting about this. Take a current soldier's body armor, night vision goggles and communications equipment, throw in an automatic medical treatment unit and voila! You've basically got Gordon Freeman's HEV suit. There is no indication that the suit will make the satisfying "uhhuummuhhuummuhhuumm" sound like Mr. Freeman's, but there's no indication that it won't, either.
A PUBLICATION OF THE ECA
SUBSCRIBE
LOGINGamePolitics ShoutBox
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:02am
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
DarkSaber: http://tinyurl.com/yez7jyo
Posted 11/08/09 at 09:01am
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:53am
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
JDKJ: But cheer up, Austin. If the unemployment rate continues to double-digit as predicted for the next few years, your half-dozen stands a better than likely chance of returning to power.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:46am
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
Posted 11/08/09 at 08:31am
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:07am
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
Posted 11/08/09 at 01:06am
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
Posted 11/08/09 at 12:24am
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
ZippyDSMlee: JDKJ:the only trouble is a bunch of witless hacks wrote it....its going to be a train wreck....
Posted 11/07/09 at 11:33pm
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
Copyright © 2007 ECA. All rights reserved.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
Very cool indeed. And JT says video games only causes problems... haha
That suit is absolutly useless. What kind of hazard suit cant go through hazards??? It can't go through radioactive waste, it can't go through steam, can't go through fire, it can't take bullets very well, also can't go through electrical currents, doesn't protect you from explosions. Useless. Absolutly useless. For hazardous enviroments at normal, stereal, at STP.
It's so true. That haz-mat suit Gordon wore was pretty much worthless.
You don't know that; think about how much damage Gordon WOULD take without that suit. And even if it didn't...
IT LOOKS TOTALLY AWESOME!
Are you serious? Are you saying that you think you could go through the ridiculous punishment that Gordon Freeman does without a suit? Hundreds of bullet wounds, lacerations, falls, impacts, and so on?
A normal person blasted with steam could be maimed or killed by it. Most people die from less than a handful of bullet wounds; you'd frankly be lucky to survive being shot ONCE. Just because the armor doesn't make you invincible doesn't mean that it's not a monumental improvement over natural human durability.
I expect Hazardous Enviroment Suit to allow me to pass through small pockets of radioactive material... This Hazard suit does not protect you from many hazards.... Bullets are reasonable, but electrical currents? steam? even a small fire, Radioactive material which would be an every day object in Black Mesa? Those are hazards that the Hazardous enviroment suit can't save you from.
Again, you're misconcieving invulnerablity for protection. Just because it doesn't stop EVERYTHING, doesn't mean it won't prevent the bulk of the damage.
What the Half-Life games didn't show you is how quickly Gorden would get his ass kicked without the suit. And he DID go everywhere without the helmet, so it's not like there was a perfect seal.
Still, I encourage you to compare walking through a fire in a flame retardant suit, and then without. Compare notes and see if your hypothesis still holds. Feel free to try this with a hazmat suit and radioactive materials, too.
Actually, they did show what'd happen to him without the suit. Notice all those scientists in white lab coats that got totally rocked? Yeah...that would have been Gordon.
Uh, yes it did, or did you not play threw the opening to Half Life 2? There is a brief segment where you can be sugmeneted to enemy fire before you get the suit.
I still expect it to do reasonably well in adverse conditions. This thing can't even go through a freezer without damaging!
Acctualy, in Half Life 2 you are not effected by radiation unless you directly contact the source, that could easily be atributted to the suit protecting you from the radioactive material's well... radiation?
Not to mention the core in episode 1.
I am surprised they dont secretly already have this... They have some top secret planes that wont be unclassified for a good decade that are utterly amazing though... They can go ungodly speeds, and use less fuel than flying normally at normal speeds. What they say they want to have in 30 years, they already have typically.
In that case, maybe they DO already have it, and just haven't revealed he fact yet. :-) The funding is just a trick, or to check and see whether this team's research will maybe bring to light some new ideas for the working model of the suit.
Good thing we have dedicated Internet Detectives such as yourself bringing these military secrets to light.
Oh I'm sure they have a lot more than than this. At the risk of sounding the crackpot conspiracy theorist they've got to have more than they let on. The thought of having a full suit of rigid "powered" armor is the next natural evolution of warfare. We've already seen a serious shift in the recent past in tactics focusing toward small teams. So would it not follow that military R&D would focus on making those units more effective?
I want to know when they're going to develop the Gravity Gun. And the Portal Gun.
Now you're thinking with portals. Fuck...now I want to go play that game again.
Heh, that was perfect. I actually WANT the Gravity Gun. Any idea if they plan on making the organic version?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Game on, brothers and sisters." -Leet Gamer Jargon
They've been working on that tech for the past 15 years. It was called Task Force 21 in the '90s and their main purpose was to test enhancements and replacements for then current tech.
Hunting the shadows of the troubled dreams.
My dreams have all come true. What will come next? Perhaps a good mario movie? Maybe the army will develop mario armor. ahhh its nice too have tech these days
But Mario dies everytime someone throws a mushroom at him.
What about the vaguely British female voice? Will it have that too?
More importantly, will the flashlight be usable for more than 30 seconds at a time?