August 14, 2010
AN EVEN BETTER WAY TO KILL OFF THOSE OLD FOLKS:
‘Welfare robots’ to ease burden in greying Japan (AFP, July 30, 2010)
Robotic wheelchairs, mechanical arms and humanoid waiters are among the cutting-edge inventions on show at a robotics fair in Japan, a country whose population is ageing rapidly.To ease the burden in a nation with one of the world’s highest life expectancies, engineers have come up with technologies to make life easier for the elderly and disabled, and their caregivers. [...]
Another invention from Saitama University, still in the development phase, is a robot that is being designed to serve its human masters and predict their wishes by literally reading their faces.
With its female appearance and dressed, manga-cartoon-style, in a French maid uniform, the humanoid on display at the fair can move about with the help of a Segway people mover hidden under its full-length skirt.
Sensors and software inside the machine are designed to detect when a human being is looking at it and to respond by, for example, bringing the person a drink, said Kobayashi, adding that the robot-maid could one day work in homes for the elderly and restaurants.
Learning about the complexities of human behaviour will be a challenge, said Kobayashi, adding: “Humanoids need to learn how they should behave so as not to leave one particular person in a group unattended.”
Close friend, family relationships boost survival (Randy Dotinga, 8/03/10, USA Today: HealthDay
Family and friends may do more than provide companionship: They also may boost your longevity, making as much of a difference as not smoking, a new analysis of studies suggests.Researchers combined the results of 148 studies and estimated that people with strong personal relationships are 50% more likely than others to survive over a specific period of time.
