Slashdot Mirror
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?
...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
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"
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
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.
..It's not like that.. not even nearly.
I'm suspecting the situation there is similar as here in Finland, that the baby boom generation that was born after ww2 is getting old enough to retire, which means that a lot of jobs is going to be freed and the number of elderly people is going to increase quite fast(coupled with increased life expectancy).
It's not that there isn't any children. It's that the population isn't expanding rapidly as it was after ww2. basically what it means that because of the baby boom 50 years ago there's going to be a boom of people retiring in the coming years.
besides, a personal helper is very expensive if the problem is that a person needs just some mobility enchantment(basically the realistic alternative for normal folk being sent to a retirement home and lie drugged out on a bed there till you die - does that sound very good?).
and old people feel better if they can get on by themselfs, in their own homes(granted that they still get to meet other people and generally have some activity in their lives.).
not that they're very protective either, I'd guess you'd need to know the language pretty well to be able to carry out house helper tasks(and be subject to local minimum wage & etc laws. unlike in some certain countries into which foreign manual labour workforce can be brought in very cheaply and then dumped back to where they came from..). getting work visas into japan is far from impossible, but hey, it's slashdot! dramatised shit for nerds!
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.