This High-Tech Suit Makes You Spider-Man (Sort Of)

Sense danger before it arrives.

Image Credit: Lance Long

For anyone who has fantasized about getting bit by an exotic spider and waking up with the ability to shoot cobwebs from your wrists (handy for both the morning commute and for the coworker who won't stop talking), science could be the answer.

For now, scientists have figured out how to give anyone Spider-Sense. A new body suit, aptly called SpiderSense, developed by a Ph.D. student Victor Mateevitsi at the University of Illinois in Chicago lets blindfolded subjects sense danger and navigate without sight.

"When someone is punching Spider-Man, he feels the sensation and can avoid it. Our suit is the same concept," Mateevitsi told New Scientist.

During the Mateevitsi's test trials, the researcher blindfolded subjects and asked them to feel for "approaching attackers." WIth the suit, the students could sense someone approached 95% without seeing them.

So far, the suit gives wearers Spider-Sense. We're hoping for Spider-speed, grip and strength superpowers with the next version of the suit.

[via New Scientist]

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