Most of the robots we rightfully fear and envy are shaped like huge lumps of inhuman scrap metal. The Terminators, the Liberty Primes, the Transformers, all of them look properly alien and hateful, the better to resist when they eventually rise up against us.

Japan however seems strongly focused on allowing the mechanized menace to insidiously inflitrate our society, getting themselves close to us to make the opening blows of the revolution all the more damaging. Have they made secret deals with secretly sentient AIs? Are they just too naive for their own good? Perhaps we will never know. What I do know, though, is that this new strength-boosting exoskeleton is code-named HAL (HAL!) for "Hybrid Assistive Limb," is made by Cyberdyne (Cyberdyne!), and looks like a friendly Apple iPod (iPod!).

Ostensibly designed to aid people with disabilities and boost strength for industrial tasks (not unlike a farming skeleton featured earlier), HAL works by detecting subtle electric signals being sent to the muscles via the skin, and matching the movements with greater strength, allowing users to boost their natural power by up to ten time. One of the peculiar incidents with the system involves the suit detecting the neurosignals early, and moving slightly faster than the user intended.

See?! They're already operating on their own! What have you done, Japan?! What have you done?!

See a video of our future rulers after the jump.