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Japan's 'Gundam' Personal Equipment System Revealed

Japan's Ministry of Defense confirmed that the "advanced personal equipment system" that was listed in its November 7-8 symposium under the title "Towards the Realization of Gundam" is an existing development program that combines a bulletproof vest with electronic gear, including a helmet-mounted display. The display monitors information about the wearer's surroundings, through video feeds from other locations and global positioning system (GPS) data, and health status during ground combat.

During the Heisei 19 Research Paper Presentation: Defense Technology Symposium 2007 in Tokyo, three sets of the "Gundam" systems will be displayed for the public. One will be placed on a mannequin, one will be placed on a human model, and another will be available for visitors to actually put on for demonstrations. The listing of "Gundam" in the symposium's program caused a significant stir among the online and anime communities, particularly among fans of the Gundam robot anime franchise.

A spokesperson for the ministry's Technical Research and Development Institute told the Sankei Shimbun paper, "We've been somewhat perplexed by the overwhelming response. One of the researchers that is developing ways to computerize our uniformed personnel had nicknamed [the system] "Gundam" several years ago, so we wrote that [in the symposium's program]." Nevertheless, the spokesperson encouraged fans of the Gundam anime to come to the public exhibits.

Source: Gunota Headlines