Robotics

Swappable Jizai Arms bring new meaning to "Could you lend me a hand?"

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The Jizai Arms supernumerary robotic arm system can accommodate up to six arms per user
Kazuaki Koyama / Jizai Arms
The Jizai Arms were designed to be aesthetically appealing, and to "harmonize with the human body"
Kazuaki Koyama / Jizai Arms
The Jizai Arms team is currently seeking research and development opportunities, in order to take the technology further
Kazuaki Koyama / Jizai Arms
The Jizai Arms supernumerary robotic arm system can accommodate up to six arms per user
Kazuaki Koyama / Jizai Arms
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Equipping people with extra sets of robotic arms could definitely help them perform certain tasks, but what role might such arms play in social interactions? The wild-looking Jizai Arms were designed with that question in mind.

Created by a team of scientists at the University of Tokyo, the Jizai Arms take their name from the traditional Japanese "Jizai Okimono" articulated animal figurines. Jizai is pronounced "jee-zye," and roughly translates to "freely" … or in this case, more like "freely moving."

At the base of the experimental setup is a backpack with six built-in sockets. Different types of system-specific articulated robotic arms can be plugged into one or more of those sockets, then controlled in real time by either the wearer or another person. The arms were designed to be aesthetically appealing, and to "harmonize with the human body."

The Jizai Arms team is currently seeking research and development opportunities, in order to take the technology further
Kazuaki Koyama / Jizai Arms

We're still waiting to hear back from the researchers regarding the exact means by which the Jizai Arms are controlled, although a report on the Analytics Vidhya website states that a wireless remote which actually looks like a miniature version of the arms is used. The report also claims that with four arms attached, the wearable setup tips the scales at 14 kg (31 lb).

For the study, groups of volunteers wore Jizai Arms systems while physically interacting with one another is a variety of role-playing social scenarios. Participants were encouraged to exchange arms with one other as they saw fit, and to give or receive them as gifts. They could also control both their own arms and those of other volunteers.

"From our role-playing sessions, we found that our bodies could precisely sense the attachment/detachment of arms, and we especially felt a strong impact when detaching or reducing the number of robotic arms worn," the scientists stated in a paper on the study. "We also suggested adding customizability to the robotic arms to generate a sense of social ownership, an individual's sense of ownership towards a specific artificial body part shared among multiple persons, as a future research topic."

The paper was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. You can see the Jizai Arms in action, in the video below.

Source: Jizai Arms

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7 comments
Babaghan
General Kenobi, you are a bold one
Joy Parr
I'm a woman and I certainly wouldn't go anywhere near a man who was wearing any of those in any 'social' situation, for obvious reasons, duh. :-/
josefaber
Star Wars aside, this technology could be adapted to several areas.
Bob Flint
Spiderman meets Spiderwoman
White Rabbit
Zaphod Beeblebrox, a character in Douglass Adams' "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"had had a third arm added.
TpPa
Pass for a few more years
Erik
It doesn't seem very useful right now.