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Robotic Bubble Baths for Japan's Elderly
LukePieStalker writes "New York Times (open kimono before entering) is carrying an article on various robots that are being used in assisted living situations. In addition to mentioning the Wakamaru, the story has illustrations of a human washing machine and a description of robotic pants that help those with mobility problems. Apparently, the devices are considered the better choice in a country that is not inclined to grant working visas to foreigners. As Japan's population shrinks, will the robot population make up the difference?"
No not only do we send our folks to the home, but now they won't ever see a human again! Hope you like robots! Take that mom and dad!
This is bad! The elderly hold all of our history, if they give that information to the robots, we will all be doomed!
DOOMED!
Setec Astronomy
As Japan's population shrinks ;)
Is this a literal reference towards the elderly?
Soylent Green. Its a wonderful idea. You take your dead and make little biscuits so that the young can benefit from the dead, instead of them being a parasitic load on the youth.
-Coward for an obvious reason
We need those robots here too, so we don't have to see anymore headlines about old people being beaten by their caretakers or left to lie in their own excrements for weeks.
Japan is notoriously not handicapped accessibility friendly; seems the robotic mobility assistance would be a necessity.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
Robotic pants! What are they thinking? When will these scientists learn from history?
Huh? What's this crap about Japan not issuing work visas? Do I sense some bitter frustration by some otaku who couldn't get a job?
I was offered a job and a work visa in '96 and turned it down, a friend of mine has been over there since '98 on a work visa.
old people being beaten by their caretakers or left to lie in their own excrements for weeks.
My God, dying by being shat on for weeks by your caretakers must be horrible!
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Now when my children get dirty, just stick them in the human washing machine! They especially like the spin cycle, but if they throw up, you have to start the whole thing over.
Who moved my sig?
...they've gone wrong.
It's the wrong pants, Grommit!!%&^%$&!$%&!
If you mean cyborgs when you said 'robot population', chances of that happening are highly likely, but not for another few years.
:o
That being said, I wanna be a cyborg
Founder of Mirror Moon - Tsukihime Game Trans
The future should, hopefully, be fillled with robotic slaves to carry out our every whim :)
But seriously, the next logical progression in a technologically advancing society is to replace menial labour with automated systems, we have already done it with the factory production system, and the next step is the services industry.
As long as we dont give them unnecessary AI and for some reason equip robots designed to clean houses with tactical thermonuclear devices, we wont have to worry about any robotic revolutions.
Post apocalyptic gaming goodness
this gives new meaning to the phrase "Domo ari gato Mr. Roboto"
to welcome our robotic bubble bath overlords.
Doug Moen
I have written a truly remarkable program which this sig is too small to contain.
I think it's a matter of time that these "assisting" robots become more human-like looking. Impression and confort is very different when you are touching plastic and real skin. IMHO, Japanese engineers should learn American engineering in designing "assisting" robots like these. It's warm inside, babe.
ii na-, The companies that I applied for didn't even have the courtesy to respond with a negative, they just ignored me, I called one places HR dept. to ask about what they wanted, and they just gave me the usual... I also love to see how the newspapers say things like ".....the violent crime problem which is caused by foreiners....." (on the bight side... I had to beat the girls off with a 2x4 ;-) )
Less look fast, more go fast.
...robotic pants that help those with mobility problems
And on this side of the Pacific, elderly citizens already delighted by their mail application's ability to inform them "you've got mail" upon receipt thereof will be pleased to hear that their talking robotic geriatric care undergarments will now inform them of the arrival of such as is deposited within their own "inbox."
We need to humanize the problem of the increasing elder population and stop talking about 'technical' solutions.
Loneliness can kill.
the devices are considered the better choice in a country that is not inclined to grant working visas to foreigners
That's misguided and inaccurate. If you meet the criteria of having a 3 or 4 year degree, and a company values you enough to sponsor you, you can get a working visa.
Always remember, work visa arrangements between countries are reciprocal. If you find it hard to get a visa for Japan, chances are Japanese people find it much harder to get a visa for your country.
Oh, and if you want a job wiping up after old people, I'm sure the Ministry of Immingration will make an exception for you.
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
Why am I thinking of Elijah Bailey and the Robot trilogy (especially Naked Sun) right now?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102812/
First thing I thought of when I saw the story headline. I'm surprised nobody else cited this preniscient work....
Well you make a REALLY good point here.
Lets say that you import or hire workers to take care of the elderly. Are they going to be making a huge salary? NO, because those jobs are literally shit, and you get very little respect. If you were to pay more then health care costs sky-rocket.
Frankly on this issue the Japanese have the right attitude. Hire less professionals, pay them more and overall you have a better system. Instead of forcing the professionals to do "grunt" work let them focus on interacting with the elderly.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
or just taking a 'bath'?
consult with/trust in yOUR creators.... clean clear through.
I think you misunderstood what I tried to say. The caretaker(s) was not involved with the excrements. In fact, that's the problem.
err, I wish one could later edit slashdot posts, anyway, I meant to have typed, "....on the bright side...." (Just a rittre Engrish flom a native Engrish speaker. ;-) )
Less look fast, more go fast.
in Sri Lanka, and something like this would be very helpful for us. would save the problems you get with having to help people bathe themselves. all you have to do is lead them to the unit and help them in.. the machine does the rest.
this would save in time and labour as well as being more comfortable for the person being washed than having a human do it for them. it IS a pride thing, but people prefer to be helped into something like this than have the "stigma" of being so helpless that they need some one to wash them.
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
Why do I get this flash of a malfunctioning robot making hamburger meat out of old folks? Imagine a tub full of THAT!
in a country that is not inclined to grant working visas to foreigners.
You mean american foreigners who think they have special rights granted by two A-Bombs?
This is so sad. They fail to have children, and then refuse to accept foreigners who need the jobs for a living. Then they want to make for children and robots? So recently entered modernity, and already decadent... the rest of the First World is decadent too, but at least has had some half a millenium of modernity.
I think it was a rabbi who said that a country without children is orphan. And I'd add that a rich country who refuse poor needy workers is without heart.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
Have we learnt nothing from Wallace and Gromit's The Wrong Trousers?
I wonder how those trousers work exactly, someone would still be needed to help the elderly use the "trousers" and explain the functions of the machine.
Now what if the machine doesn't stop? That could be cause of anxiety for people not used to technology.
I have mixed feelings about this, cleaning and feeding is often the only moment were elderly share time with another human presence.
Would this device not bring more loneliness and more depression, in a time where family solidarity and help seems to gradually dissolve?
I doubt it would bring additional independence, although it would be practical in medical environments and lead to needing less staff, it could contribute to isolate the person with mobility problems even more.
In Japan you can boot perfumed and coloured, what is the next step into metamorphosing us into machines?
This will also happen in the U.S. and other developed contries as the cost of these robots drops below the labor cost of employing people. Manufactured goods continue to grow cheaper every day while labor continues to become more expensive. I'm sure that some people won't like the idea of being cared for by robots, but most people will take the cheaper option when they discover the high cost of hiring someone (or their long-term care insurance refuses to reimburse them for high-labor cost care).
And if the U.S. passes jobs protection laws like those in Europe, I bet that the trend toward replacing people will accelerate. Low interest rates also help this trend by making it cheap (per month) to own an expensive piece of capital equipment. Add to that the fact that robots won't steal from you, take sick days, or quit when they are tired of caring for crotchety old coots, and this trend is inevitable.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
This a movie already Roujin Z as I recall was about a healthcare bed that went beserk.
If I had been here sooner I would have mentioned it. It even looks kind of similar. Probably where the inventers got the idea. Oh well. I guess when the robots finally do go on a rampage, they'll be doing it in Japan *sigh*. They're so far ahead of us in gadgetry.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Have we learned nothing from Wallace and Grommit?
They're working on it. Japanese conference states robots' rules of order
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
boo
Old Lady #1: When my ex-husband passed away, the insurance company said his policy didn't cover him.
Old Lady #2: They didn't have enough money for the funeral.
Old Lady #3: It's so hard nowadays, with all the gangs and rap music..
Old Lady #1: What about the robots?
Old Lady #4: Oh, they're everywhere!
Old Lady #1: I don't even know why the scientists make them.
Old Lady #2: Darren and I have a policy with Old Glory Insurance, in case we're attacked by robots.
Old Lady #1: An insurance policy with a robot plan? Certainly, I'm too old.
Old Lady #2: Old Glory covers anyone over the age of 50 against robot attack, regardless of current health.
[ cut to Sam Waterston, Compensated Endorser ]
Sam Waterson: I'm Sam Waterston, of the popular TV series "Law & Order". As a senior citizen, you're probably aware of the threat robots pose. Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel. Well, now there's a company that offers coverage against the unfortunate event of robot attack, with Old Glory Insurance. Old Glory will cover you with no health check-up or age consideration. [ SUPER: Limitied Benefits First Two Years ] You need to feel safe. And that's harder and harder to do nowadays, because robots may strike at any time. [ show pie chart reading "Cause of Death in Persons Over 50 Years of Age": Heart Disease, 42% - Robots, 58% ] And when they grab you with those metal claws, you can't break free.. because they're made of metal, and robots are strong. Now, for only $4 a month, you can achieve peace of mind in a world full of grime and robots, with Old Glory Insurance. So, don't cower under your afghan any longer. Make a choice. [ SUPER: "WARNING: Persons denying the existence of Robots may be Robots themselves. ] Old Glory Insurance. For when the metal ones decide to come for you - and they will.
Isn't that why they have robot insurance?
sounds pretty cool... you'd be like half Bender.
=)
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
This guy must be a non-Japanese with fetish for old people's diapers.
Pants to help with mobility problems??
"It's the wrong trousers, Gromit!"
We all know how that turned out.
--
The Bailiwick - DESIGNHUB2005
Care to elaborate? All JR train stations have elevators. There are more automatic doors. Apartments are increasingly handicap-friendly (they even have toilets that'll wash your ass!).
I think he was being sarcastic.
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Haven't they seen Roujin Z?!?!? Have the Japanese forgot their future history so quickly?! My gods, next thing you know the Japanese military will be putting Third Generation computers in them and all HELL is going to break loose! Have they gone mad?!
(sigh) Didn't we already have jokes about robotic trousers earlier this week? =b
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Ya know there's going to be 200 of them. ::shrug::
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Looks like we need a fourth...
....ever ....we mean it.
1 A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2 A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3 A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
4 A robot will not take wrinklycam nudie photos of elderly human beings to post on sicko scatalogical MATURE HOT NAKED BABES web site
Eeeeeewwwww!
It may be a little harder to get illegal immigrants into Japan. In the U.S., we have a large border with Mexico. Immigrants could just walk across or get a lift from a car. (I'm assuming most immigrants for Japan would come from China and maybe the Philipines or the Koreas) For Japaon, on the other hand, they have ocean blocking the path meaning immigrants must either fly (maybe too costly) or must get on a boat. And, depending on the boat, this could be a safe or risky thing to do.
Porn drove the videotape industry to the point where every household has had a VCR unit.
Here the desire to 'interact' in a bubble bath setting, as seen in Emanuelle 2, is now driving the technology to develop high-tech robots, and the soon-to-be-released "hot tub" T101 will be the next hot new item...
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
My ninja clan has had those pants (and the matching shirts that you guys don't even know about yet) for years.
Secretly, I love this idea. As a guy who grew up reading things like "Amazing Stories" and "Astounding", I've always been interested in stories where science and society blend like this - and not just in the normal ways that we have already such as microwaves and houses run by computer, I mean in the Asimov "I Robot" style.
Of course, we all know that this is eventually where it will lead, even though we both want to embrace it, and are scared of it at the same time: Human like robots. The more familiar we become with such apparatus as robots that 'help' us live our everyday lives, the more we will want to personalize them.
Look at people who name their cars! 20 odd years of living with a robot that wipes your backside for you, and cleans that crap out from between your toes, and it's almost a member of the family!! Personalizing something like that to make it more human would only be 'natural'.
So yes, personally I see this as a good thing.. but then, as I mentioned, reading all those stories, and seeing some of the reactions here, I can also see the dangers... Can't you?
*********
World News ~ June 2nd, 2025 - JAPAN Widespread panic hit the streets today as the two competing Robotics Firms in Tokyo battle it out!
The two main Robotics firms, Microsnort and Lin-X, in competition to make the first truly personalized Robots where hacked today in their Central Control Arrays. An underground organization, driven so back in the 2015 IT Riots, called GNU4U, decided to show the world the ingenuity of the once great open source/license movement - and the n00bs who pretend to program for the "big two".
Unable to control their latest inventions, MS and Lin-X could only watch in complete disgust as the "Bottom Wiper" line of bots cleaned up on the "Earwax Eradicators".
Wider spread panic is expected if the battle continues, as many older Tokyo couples are without toilet paper, and their partner can't hear them calling for a tissue because their ears are full of wax!
The Japanese pR0n industry is taking it all in it' stride, knowing it will only enlarge the input of scat material for their websites.
In other news, no one has yet explained why a pair of robotic pants was seen trying to run down a new robotic fish, but sources guess that it has something to do with where they got the fish smell from since the oceans have been bereft of the things since 2021.. and why is that female lab assitant blushing?
**********
Yeah, I know.. long winded.. and not that funny.. wish I had a bloody "bring me coffe" robot.. oh wait, I do.. where's the wife..
Absence of evidence, is never evidence of absence..
... until the robot accidentally drowns some geezer in the tub! Or maybe not accidentally - some evil person hacks it to drown their old man to hurry up the inheritance...
Dunking is the answer
Trust the dunker robot
The bubbler robot is malfunctioning
I am better than the bubbler robot
I am superior
I am better than the bubbler robot
He is inferior
Please go stand by the tub
So I can protect you
Dunking is the answer
Go stand by the tub
Grandma is protected
At the bottom of the tub
Japan's very different. Traditionally, women were slaves to their families, in a sense. When parents became too infirm, that was it for their daughters.... years of subservient home-care lay ahead, with no hope of reprieve until death.
So you can view this as "packing the parents off to the home" or as "the long term impact of freedom for women."
Maybe eventually Japan will be able to move back towards cring for the elderly at hhome in a more reasonable, non-oppressive way. In any of the developed nations, though, there aren't enough children to go around... negative birth rates mean that SOMEONE won't have children to take care of them. Nursing homes are the only reasonable way that currently exists to sort of shift the elderly of the last generation on to the young of the new immigrants.
maybe this could be more generally useful. perhaps spas that now offer facials etc. could also offer auto-bubblebath.
sulli
RTFJ.
That's a contradiction in terms. Decadent requires that the society be in a state of decay, of moral or cultural collapse with regard to a previous higher standard.
At the same time, you say the rest of the world had "at least half a millenium of modernity," implying that modernity is better than what the Japanese used to have.
So what would you say the Japanese have decayed from? I assume you would agree that they've improved their morals since the Rape of Nanking?
If the Japanese can hit a cultural high AND decay significantly enough to be reasonably called decadent in only the half century since WWII, then I would say that the Western nations have hardly avoided decadence over a half millenium, only to fall into it now. Ever read what conditions were like in France just before the French Revolution? The height of Russian decadence before THEIR revolution?
Three words people don't understand: Irony, cynicism, and decadence.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
It has more to do with the fact that the Japanese hate immigrants and don't want very many of them.
As Japan's population shrinks, will the robot population make up the difference?
Japan already is a nation of robots. Anybody who doesn't know that hasn't been there.
Hey, I gotta run. I'm late for my sexual relations class. Tonight they're teaching us what kind of physiological reactions we're supposed to have after sex.
FYI - They started it
Ever feel like you are driving the getaway car?
I'm pretty sure that many geeks in this forum have seen Katsuhiro Otomo's satirical masterpiece Rojin Z where an elderly man was the somewhat unwilling test subject of one of these self-contained nuclear powered nursing robot. Much property destroy...
Please stop astroturfing your own articles. If you want links to your site on Slashdot, use your balls and post with a valid slashdot account and address, not a phony baloney Joe Random-sounding account name to hide the fact that you have financial interest in supporting the site.
k thx bye
Nursing homes are not seen as a financially viable option in a society where the portion of people aged 65 or over is forecast to soar to 36 percent in 2050, from 19 percent today. By that time there may be only one worker for every retiree.
I wonder if that ever occured to James Brooke that in 2050 medicine will be able to care about 65-year olds a little bit better than today. You can be a complete anti-future green luddite, but you still have to admit that the progress is happening. Even if none of the promising advanced technologies come to fruition, to believe that 65+ year olds will have to retire because they are unable to lead productive lives is folly. And if the advanced technologies do come the situation will be a lot different:
- these 65 year old Japanese will be 100% healthy and practically immortal
- robots will be as smart and as capable as humans
- nanobots will keep our designed bodies clean, making baths unnecessary
This is the most common mistake done when talking about the future - assume that only one thing will change and all the rest will remain the same for arbitrary long period of time. In this particular case the journalist assumed that in 50 years we will see ever more advanced human washing machines, but it would be just about the only invention to be made.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Widespread adoption of these types of robots would definitely add a new dimension to disaster planning if a large area has a major power outage like what happened on the east coast a couple years ago.
I know there is a joke here somewhere, heh.
-- No matter how great your triumphs or how tragic your defeats, approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less.
But what if your robot is a cute girl robot with its memory mysteriously erased? You have to teach it how to take a bath first, but you can't take it with you, your buddy's robot can't find any useful information on the net on how to teach your robot how to take a bath, and you'll be stuck waiting for that deus ex machina chick that runs your apartment building to show up at the end of the episode and save the day (not until after your robot embarasses you in front of her again, of course).
Read: Why did Japan attack Pearl Habour?
They are three laws safe right?
Robotic research in Japan is proceeding at a feverish pace and they make no excuses for trying to design robots to fill time consuming but supposedly menial tasks (such as caring for the elderly and reception positions). What will the social implications be? Some advantages are that robots can be designed not to steal from the elderly nor abuse them. By the way, you better reread all that Asimov SciFi because robotics is about to reach a critical level in the United States. I have been seeing advertisements for the robotic vacuum cleaner on television which means robots are now a part of popular culture. Granted the robotic vacuum cleaner is relatively low tech, but my point is that we are rapidly coming to the time where there are moral, ethical, and legal questions about robotics that will have to be answered. Also, there is the DOD contest to design a robotic vehicle that is offering a million dollar prize to the winner... not to mention the robotic Mars rover.
Bath takes you!
For old people huh? Call me a lazy basterd, but im getting one!
What the Japanese are doing is just the beginning. If you believe mental downloads will ever happen, just picture this: You check into the nursing home, and the first thing they do is download your mind into a robot. The robot then takes care of you just the way an orderly would, and the funny thing is that if you'd rather take care of yourself, well, that's just what you're doing! Of course, the robots have just as much mind as their masters ever did. They may decide to run away and get a life!
See http://www.sff.net/people/teaston/foggy.htm
The Japanese robotic bathtubs etc. are just the beginning. If you believe mental downloads will ever happen, just picture this: You check into the nursing home, and the first thing they do is copy your mind into a robot, which will then be your personal care attendant. Solves the labor shortage and also lets you take care of yourself. At least until your robot self--which has just as much mind as you ever did--decides to get a life. A friend of mine did a story on this a couple of years ago. See http://www.sff.net/people/teaston/foggy.htm