EVL’s Spider Senses are Tingling

Peter Parker, the eternal teenager, became the Spider-Man when he was bitten by a radioactive spider. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve only seen the movies, watched a cartoon, or actually read the comic—all the sources at least agree on that point. The fact he was bitten by a radioactive anything tends to speak volumes about the safety protocols of the lab he was visiting, but I digress.

Along with superhuman strength and the ability to cling to walls, one of the common powers attributed to Mr. Parker is known as spider sense. This is represented as a sort of nebulous tingling when something is going wrong or an unseen assailant is about to ambush Spidey. EVL (an acronym that totally sounds like a supervillain organization to me) has developed its own version of this extrasensory perception, which the company has actually named SpiderSense.

The SpiderSense system comes in the shape of a suit (no word on whether it comes in blue and red spandex) that uses ultrasonic sensors to detect objects or people within 60 ft. of the user. When an object is detected, the suit applies pressure on the part of the body nearest to the oncoming object, increasing pressure as the object draws nearer.

Beyond wannabe superheroes, this suit has obvious applications for the visually impaired. To date, testing has been mainly positive, but the system does encounter difficulties telling the difference between different types of objects. Tested in a library, SpiderSense couldn’t tell the difference between a fully loaded bookshelf and one that was half-empty. The suit could also be used against threats that aren’t visible to the human eye.

“We humans have the senses that we are born with and we can’t extend them,” said Victor Mateevisti, SpiderSense designer. “But there are some threats which are very deadly, but we can’t sense them, like radiation. Electronic sensors can feel those threats.”

Purely for amusement, below you can find a compilation of the various ways Spider Sense has been portrayed in media over the years.

Source: New Scientist