Wearable airbag for the elderly unveiled

Japan’s ageing crisis has left the country with a unique catalogue of problems, among them a spiralling pensions shortfall and a surprising rise in crimes committed by the elderly.

Nasty falls, however, may be things of the past — thanks to the invention of the human airbag.

Simply strap the 2½lb (1.1kg) pouch around the waist and the wearer is armed with the cutting edge of protection. Sensors detect movement and have been programmed to know when things have gone wrong — a slip on something wet, a stumble on an uneven paving stone or a fall down stairs.



Within a tenth of a second, the airbags inflate to the size of three footballs as they are blasted into action with 15 litres of compressed gas, offering a soft slab of padding on the most vulnerable parts of the body in a fall: the back of the head and the bottom.

The price tag on the device — about £700 — offers a hint at just how big the “silver yen” has become as a business proposition.

The people most likely to pay for them are not the pensioners, but their guilt-ridden children, whose punishing work commitments prevent them from checking up on their parents more regularly.

Update: There's a video demonstration here.