Honda presents a futuristic wheelchair that Professor X from the X-men would like (video)

Wheelchairs are very useful for people with mobility problems, but they still have limitations… until now.

The new one Wheelchair futuristic of Sling is named Uni Oneand it’s worthy of a movie Science fiction. The Japanese company promises a mobility very similar to that of people who walk.

The giant Honda has been working on designing wheelchairs that outperform conventional models for a decade, since it presented its Uni-cub in 2012. The latest evolutionary model is called uni-onewhich you can see in operation in the opening video of the news.

The wheelchair standard fulfill their function of transporting a person, but they do not offer a good mobility. They must be operated by hand or with a joystick, and their turning and maneuverability are limited. Besides that they are quite bulky.

The wheelchair of the future

The Wheelchair uni-one of Sling it does not move like conventional models. It’s actually a self balancing unicyclewhich is handled tilting the bodyby means of gyroscopes. In that sense it looks a bit like the mythical Segway. It is the same system that we use to walk: we lean to one side to move there.

This self-balancing movement allows two things: that the wheelchair is smaller, does not bulk up much more than the person himself, and that the user has both hands free.

uni-one allows a very tight turn, to the point that it can turn without moving, and 360 degree movement, including side scrolling. The result is that the mobility it offers is similar to walkingwithout having to make any effort, beyond tilting the lathe.

Even so, for people with paralysis of the torso, or to maneuver in very small spaces, it also allows operation by hand, using a joystick.

Another advantage of this futuristic wheelchair is that the seat is higher than usual, almost like a stool. This gives the impression that the person in the chair is standing up, facilitating face-to-face communication when walking down the street, for example.

An interesting feature of Uni One is that it has two modes of movement. We have already seen the self-balancing mode, but it also has a more stable mode where the center of gravity of the chair drops a few centimeters, and they appear four small wheels on the sides.

This mode is the one used to sit down to eat at a table, or simply to obtain more stability when moving.

As we see, the Uni One wheelchair of Sling offers an advanced solution that allows a mobility very close to that of walking, keeping both hands free at all times. Unfortunately there is no information on the price or release date yet.