She powerwalks. She splats.

Good thing the floor's padded.

Jog?

Jog. Splat. Jog, roll. "Sorry."

"Don't worry, if you'll be tempted to do that it's also useful to collect data on it."

"Okay then." Jog jog roll jog jog splat. She can do a kip-up.

Eventually they should move on to running even if she'll splat a lot because it'd be good if the thing worked in most use cases.

Run splat. Run splat. She can rarely go two steps in a row at this speed without tripping, though sometimes she catches herself and doesn't hit the mat. Run run roll.

After a few more minutes of this they should be good.

"Sorry about all the necessary splatting."

"That's what the mats are for. I'm gonna want to ice my ear after this but it'll be fine tomorrow."

"I'll need to take a look at this data and figure out what the best configuration of weights would work for you. I'll let you know and you can critique my design."

"I look forward to it!"

And he can look over the results. What are the problems, exactly? What does her body do abnormally that makes her fall and fail to properly catch herself midway so often?

Timing of her steps is a big factor that starts her overbalancing, and her instincts for how to lean to compensate for that are all wrong unless she goes into a roll as soon as she notices she's falling.

Right, so, I'm thinking of two options here.

The problem seems to be mainly located in the timing of your steps, so a set of weights attached to your calves could help with that. They would selectively apply momentum to either leg to compensate for it.

Then there's where and when you lean to compensate for overbalancing, which we might be able to counter by attaching something to your torso which will try to influence that.

Both options will not by themselves fix everything and your balance will probably be worse for a bit with them. After a while you will probably get used to them, though, and then they should become background and mostly fool your brain into thinking you're not actually overbalancing most of the time.

Thoughts?

Once I'm used to them will I be worse without them than I am now?

You shouldn't be. Ideally what this thing will do is make it so your brain doesn't actually notice you overbalancing and doesn't try to compensate for that in its flawed way, so that you don't actually fall so much, but the actual instincts should still be there.

Okay, this is probably worth a try unless the bad news I have to pay for all your parts and time out of pocket.

Time's fine, and Sahde's covered the rest.

Thank you!

????

What's up?

I thought maybe he'd be able to get a grant for the experimental assistive device or there'd be a way to write it off as a healthcare expense but Ohan says you're paying for it?

Oh, yeah. It was a bit too expensive for a grant and I'm not sure healthcare would count it as an assistive device.

A bit too expensive for a grant, he says.

It's a gift!

It's very sweet but we're early days for the big ticket items!