Australian-made high tech armour could reinvent Mixed Martial Arts | Hacker News Reader

Australian-made high tech armour could reinvent Mixed Martial Arts

news.com.au

41 pointscarpdiem32 comments

"UWM’s vision is to create a large-scale sport and entertainment experience where martial artists can compete against each other with real weapons, with an objective measure of who would have won in a real combat situation"

Well the one with the gun would have won in a 'real' combat situation (what does that mean, anyway?) How is he going to score an icepick to the eye vs a baseball bat swing to the shoulder? While the latter is painful, it's a lot less debilitating than the former.

While I think there are many legitimate uses for an armor like this, and I'd love one to integrate into our training, building a spectator sport out of this isn't going to be one of them. What people like about the UFC is the same thing some people like about cycling over car races - it's not about getting from point A to B, but doing so purely using unleveraged physical abilities.

Still, cool tech.

It seems difficult to characterize a bicycle trip as "using unleveraged physical abilities". I go much faster on a bike than I can on my raw physical prowess. If the bike isn't there to add leverage, what do you have it for?

Well my expression was a bit unfortunate, I'll agree. And car races are big business too, just a different business than cycling. We'll see - while I think it's useful tech, I just don't see much future in the uses promoted in the article.

Are you really saying that people dueling with samurai swords in high tech armor that provides 3D visualization of damages have no entertainment value because the stats aren't realistic enough?

I can't believe nobody here thought about (role)playing with this kind of thing instead of watching some crappy event on TV. Paintball for swords!

They have too little entertainment value for a too small market, yes - not necessarily because they're not realistic enough, just that people don't get very excited watching a counter on screen go up. I realize one could say 'soccer goals are just a counter too', I dunno nor do I have the inclination to really formulate a theory on why I feel this won't work - let's come back to this post in 3 years and we'll see what the market thought about it. I'm not going to invest in Ultimate Samuraisword Championship, LLC, that much I know.

But hey I didn't buy BTC 3 years ago either so what do I know.

Something something outfit for going out drinking in Australia.

Should mandate them instead of instituting this idiotic "one punch" law.

Right, because someone who KILLS someone else, with a SINGLE PUNCH, should go free or get a slap on the wrist, because the mouth breathing meat head can't hold his piss?

Fuck off and go live in the united states of "i'm alright so who cares".

The one punch law is still bad law. But way to answer a point the other poster didn't make.

because it increases terms for people who have drunken brawls? because it puts time limits on people getting shit face drunk before having said brawls?

The former director of Public Prosecutions says that it's "a recipe for injustice". More importantly, it isn't going to stop anything. Oh, and on top of all that, "king hits" and violent crime has decreased in Australia, so why implement such an idiotic, short-sighted law? Oh, to make the populace who have been riled up by the media feel better.

Mandatory sentencing is a blight on the rule of law, and takes away the point of the justice system.

Classy! Hope you feel better after that rant, it seems you've got something bothering you.

It sounds like a lot of fun.

I'm not sure MMA would be where it would come out but maybe.

The one thing is I think you can concentrate an lot more force by stabbing directly forward with a stick, putting your weight behind the blow, rather than the sideways swing the demonstrator did. I'd like to see what the armor would do against a blow strong enough to knock someone over.

The last paragraph was fun:

"“UWM’s vision is to create a large-scale sport and entertainment experience where martial artists can compete against each other with real weapons, with an objective measure of who would have won in a real combat situation” UWM CEO David Pysden said."

Every time I see something like this, I become more sure: The empire will have stormtroopers.

Am I not the only one seeing this deployed as riot gear in the Ukraine and else where?

We could equip the police and the rioters with this gear and have an independent third party (UN maybe ?) count the points and announce a winner.

Well I guess you still have to resort to "real" violence when one party refuse to accept the results and start to bring guns to a tonfa fight.

This will damage the weapon, very much dissimilar to human flesh.

Agreed - if you swing a sword hard enough it just becomes a bat, not a cutting device. I feel like this armor empowers people who'd like the experience of just wailing on somebody with a stick, but it doesn't really simulate a real combat scenario.

> I feel like this armor empowers people who'd like the experience of just wailing on somebody with a stick

I could see some motivational company meetings employing this to great effect....

This could revolutionize SCA combat (and let me keep all my teeth!)

"with an objective measure of who would have won in a real combat situation"

In a real combat situation, the people being struck would experience shock and degradation of fighting ability, which would have affected the points they'd go on to score. I would say this is more about who would have scored the most points in exactly this setting.

That's true and it's not going to be used in mma, kickboxing or anything like that. But sword and spear fights where the competitors don't get killed? That sounds like fun. What mma is to karate or boxing, this could be to fencing.

Without any details I'm going to assume this is all nonsense, but fun idea.

That already exists, it is called "Historical European Martial Arts" short HEMA.

What does this have to do with MMA? The great thing about MMA is that you don't need a bunch of protective gear and tech to get an "objective measure of who would have won in a real combat situation". Very often the loser gets submitted or knocked out. That's the only truly definitive answer to who won the fight.

Where are the specs? How heavy is this thing?

I also don't really see what this has to do with MMA, which is AFAIK a mix of Muay Thai and Brazilian Jijitsu. On the other, you have plenty of traditional MA which either use weapons as part of training (eg, some kung fu schools) or are completely weapon-based (eg, kendo).

MMA isn't a style per se - the intention is to allow martial artists from any style to compete within rules designed to allow reasonable safety.

Currently the Muay Thai / BJJ combo is the most common and generally successful, but some winning MMA fighters have incorporated elements of styles as diverse as Tae Kwon Do, Western boxing, and even Capoeira.

If weapons don't do any damage then strikes certainly won't. So it will just become really clumsy wrestling and jiu-jitsu. It will be fun to watch the first event when they realize this though.

The armour registers the strength and position of hits, which would be used to allocate points.

What's up with the "Hook Player" required to watch the video??

High Tech LARPing in 3...2.....1....

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