ALLEN: A lot of you around the world felt like it was hotter last month than normal, you were right.</s>HOWELL: Japanese researchers are looking at something lost to all of us millions of years ago.</s>ALLEN: They are look to bring it back, courtesy of robotics. Here's Lynda Kinkade.</s>LYNDA KINKADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Millions of years after our ancestors evolved to lose their tails, a Japanese research team is designing a robotic version. The scientists say their device could help unsteady elderly people keep their balance. Dubbed Arque, the gray 1-meter device mimics tails that animals like cheetah's use to keep their balance, while running and climbing.</s>JUNICHI NABESHIMA, GRADUATE STUDENT, KEIO UNIVERSITY (through translator): This is a tail that aids in balance. For example, when a human tilts like this, the tail moves in the opposite direction than that of the tilted direction. The tail keeps a balance like a pendulum. This is our robotic tail.</s>KINKADE: As its population gets older, Japan has been at the forefront in seeking ways to keep its graying population mobile and productive. The researchers believe their tail could help the elderly, but they also see applications for industrial workers.</s>NABESHIMA (through translator): We have real life people in mind, such as those doing work involving heights, unstable ground and, of course, the old people who lose their sense of balance.</s>KINKADE: But what looks like science fiction could become in place in just a few years -- Lynda Kinkade, CNN.</s>HOWELL: We will be right back after this.
Japan's Robotic Tails Improve Balance.