Aging Japan Looks to Bots For Care

An anonymous reader writes to mention a Yahoo! news article about robotics in Japan. While many research bots are working on interacting with their environment, some of Japan's commercial robotics are focusing on building bots for elderly care. From the article: "The 100-kilogram (220-pound) robot can also distinguish eight different kinds of smells, can tell which direction a voice is coming from and uses powers of sight to follow a human face. 'In the future, we would like to develop a capacity to detect a human's health condition through his breath,' Mukai said. Japan is bracing for a major increase in needs for elderly care due to a declining birth rate and a population that is among the world's longest living." That sure sounds familiar.

Comments

We took care of them and did thier work

[Timberwolf0122]

and for a while it was good...

On a side note I think the reason these robots are being developed for the Japanese market is not just down to a reluctance to accept foreign workers but more to do with the fact that elderly japanes people are very light. With a (future) maximum load of 70Kg you'd need an army to care for an obease Seppo* or Europian.


* Seppo, slang: Seppo->Septic Tank->Yank.