Slashdot Mirror
Japanese Robot Guards to Patrol Shops And Offices
Clarinase writes "Robots will be patrolling Japan's streets, offices, shopping malls and other public places for the safety of the people. Guardrobo D1 is equipped with a camera and sensors to detect any signs of trouble. It will then alert the human guards via radio with camera footage of possible troubles. This is one of the technological advancement vital to the aging population of Japan, where 1 in 5 Japanese are over 65 years old."
Guardrobo D1 is equipped with a camera and sensors
A camera is a sensor. This should have been written as " Guardrobo D1 is equipped with a camera and other sensors."
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
So this undoubtably-expensive robot is a substitute for... multiple motion-sensing cameras? And a fire alarm?
What's the point in making it a robot? Why not just add the radio alert feature to the already-existing security systems and add a few more cameras?
If it ain't broke, it needs more features!
"This is one of the technological advancement vital to the ageing population of Japan, where 1 in 5 Japanese are over 65 years old."
Surely if 1 in 5 Japanese are over 65 years old, there's going to be an equally proportional reduction in crime?
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Toby
Like most developed countries there is a declining birthrate. The situation is made worse by several things:
1. Japan really really doesn't like allowing immigration.
2. There is still very old-fashioned treatment of women. This means that they underutilise 50% of their population. However, women in Japan are becoming more and more disastified with becoming a housewife and *want* careers. However, in Japan if you are a career woman and you have a baby, you are practically forced to quit. As one of my female Japanese co-workers (I work in Japan and am female) said to me recently "Back in your home country you mean women can have children and keep working?" In Japan women are quite literally forced to choose between having children and having a career. Having both is not possible. And many women choose career which further depresses the childbirth rate.
On another matter, if people think female participation in technology and scientific related fields is low in the US or Australia it's got nothing on Japan. Often we are the only females in the entire room/building. In fact my co-worker said this was the first time she had another female co-worker ever...
A weird thing in Japan right now which I see in the news is that apparently Japan has been discriminating against young people in jobs to maintain job security for "Baby boomers" (which is the reverse of the Western world). So young people have not been offered full-time positions. However now the baby boomers will be retiring starting in 2007 and employers are panicking because they havn't built up the structure of younger workers with the experience and know-how to step into the soon-to-be vacant positions.
However, in Japan if you are a career woman and you have a baby, you are practically forced to quit. As one of my female Japanese co-workers (I work in Japan and am female) said to me recently "Back in your home country you mean women can have children and keep working?" In Japan women are quite literally forced to choose between having children and having a career. Having both is not possible.
Truly, I don't mean to be a troll, but there could be a good reason behind that. I see enough career moms and dads who need to fulfill an idiotic ideal and have children, leaving them to be raised by daycare and television. A few years down the line, they find the gall to piss and moan that their own children are like strangers to them and they can't relate or communicate.
Raising a child is a full-time job, contrary to what some people would like to think. Career parents seem to want all the advantages of the two situations without any of the responsibilities that go with them.
Granted, in a lot of cases it's not financially feasible to have at least one parent dedicated to child-rearing. If at all possible, I don't think these people should be having children in the first place.
Why start something you don't have the time or resources to see through?
Coolness aside, how is this better than blanketing the area with regular security cameras?