Wired UK – March 2019

START 

movements and automatically engage

to support your lower back and hips.

Previously known as SuperFlex,

Seismic was originally spun out of the

SRI International research institute

in California, where co-founder and

CEO Rich Mahoney led the robotics

team, including working on a DARPA

programme to design lightweight,

wearable robotics for military applica-

tions. He realised that there could also

be a consumer market for a comfortable,

mobility-enhancing product. “The big

insight was that we weren’t innovating

around robotics,” he says. “We were

innovating around clothing.”

The Seismic suit isn’t an exoskeleton;

it’s not intended to do the muscles’

work for them, but to contribute about

15 to 30 per cent of the power required

(the actual amount depends on the

wearer’s size). It consists of a textile

body suit that contains electric compo-

nents. Discreet, it can be worn alone

or as a base layer. Mahoney sees it

as adding a new kind of function-

ality to fashion. You could dress for

mobility, he says. “We want people

to get dressed and not think, ‘I’m

putting something special on.’ Simply,

‘I’m just putting my clothes on.’”

Seismic plans to enter the market in

some limited venues by mid-2019. They

haven’t settled on a price, but Mahoney

says it will be in the “bespoke, design-

er-level apparel range”. At this stage,

the suits are tailored to fit the individual,

with plans for off-the-shelf sizes.

The company is initially targeting the

baby boomer generation. “As people

age, they begin to lose strength, and

that generation has a high premium on

maintaining an active lifestyle,” he says.

Next, Seismic wants to use machine

learning to enable the suit to adapt

to someone’s requirements and

preferences as they wear it. Take the

example of a teacher: perhaps the suit

could adapt to their class schedule

and automatically adjust the level of

support it provides throughout the day,

offering more assistance when they are

standing for long periods of time and

turning off when the school day ends.

Future products could also address

different parts of the body, such as the

shoulders and arms, ankles or knees.

Mahoney says the company has

received a lot of interest for worker

safety applications too, but that it

is currently positioning the suit as a

wellness product: “Your level of mobility

is directly linked to the quality of life you

have.” Victoria Turk myseismic.com

The Länsisalmi power

substation in southern

Finland needed an upgrade

• but rather than just
  installing new equipment, it
  got a full makeover from
  architect Bratislav Toskovic,
  of Helsinki-based Parviainen.
  “The main inspiration was
  electricity, and the visual
  element of light,” he says.
  “I wanted to convert the
  concrete structures into
  glowing lanterns.” To achieve
  that, he clad the substation’s
  three buildings with glass
  panels and lined them with
  LED lights, which at night
  transform the complex into
  a bright beacon. Behind its

These pull on

a fibre that runs

through the suit.

The force is

distributed by

gripping structures

in the fabric.

Sensors track

movements,

sending data

to a pack at the

base of the spine

containing a

microprocessor.

A pack on each

thigh contains a

lithium-ion battery

and two artificial,

motorised muscles

that can expand

and contract.

WEARABLE

TECH: INSIDE

THE SEISMIC

POWER SUIT