Japan loves robots. Well, sort of. At the very least, it’s a lot easier to stereotypically associate robots with Japan than any other country in the world. The idea is due to a number of different factors, most of which are attributed to the country’s religion and culture. Nowadays however, it’s more than just karakuri dolls and Tetsuwan Atomu, because robots may soon be Japan’s future elderly care workers.

Japan is the country with the highest number of elderly citizens. According to reports published a few years ago, it is estimated that at least more than 20% of the population in Japan comprise of elderly people aged 65 and above. Thus, there is more focus on elderly care in Japan than any other country. In fact so much, that the country is in constant need for caregivers and nurses who would look after their dankai no sedai (Japanese baby boomer) population.

You can probably guess now where this leads. One solution that has been constantly proposed is the development of a new generation of robots made to assist the elderly. The concept of assistant robots wasn’t fully explored before due to obvious technological limitations in the late 20th century. But today, the idea is now seriously being considered. Some research institutions are even predicting the eventuality of robots that can completely replace a human caregiver in the future.

For once, using a robot instead of a human caregiver can provide a number of different benefits, which primarily includes on the spot assistance, 24-hour monitoring and additional staffing. The third benefit is usually perceived as the most important, as many artificial caregivers are designed provide general physical assistance and not just elderly care. In addition, assistant robots can be generally convenient to use, and can provide additional comfort in the form of basic interaction.

So far, Japan has been doing pretty well in developing assistant robots. The variety and types of assistant robots have significantly increased during the past decade, from carrying robots, position assist robots, to more sophisticated ones such as monitoring and exoskeletal robots. There are also ongoing large scale initiatives in the country for the development of healthcare robots in general, such as the Robotic Devices for Nursing Care Project. In fact, the Japanese government has even openly expressed its plans last year to invest in the country’s robotics market, which is a daunting challenge to meet the nation’s ever growing elderly healthcare needs.

But most notably, more than just assistance, there is now a significant interest in the development of assistant robots that can interact deeply with its users. Palro, which was first introduced last 2010, was developed by Fujisoft to literally talk with its users, and was previously deployed in nursing homes as a preventive care unit. More recently, Softbank’s Pepper robot was designed to not only chat, but also to alter its reactions and speech by sensing and ‘feeling’ the emotion of its users.

It is interesting to note that most elderly care assistant robots are developed for only a number of specific functions. It makes perfect sense economically, if we consider the amount funds needed to research and develop a fully functional enterprise-level healthcare robot from scratch. But even with the high initial development cost, an advanced artificial caregiver would always be faster to deploy, easier to maintain and less expensive to ‘hire’ in the long run. This is especially true when we add into the equation Japan’s current population crisis, plus the looming manpower shortage in its local healthcare industry by 2025.

Ironically however, despite heavy investment in research and development of assistant robots in Japan, opinions about them within the elderly community are largely divided. Japan’s elderly population aren’t always particularly positive about the idea of being assisted or cared for by a non-human nurse. Though social interactivity (with the caregivers) seems to be the underlying problem, the main hurdle actually stems from deployment issues. Some argue that robots just aren’t advanced enough to completely replace a human caregiver. Others point out that they could be “off-putting” when placed on certain areas in medical establishments.

Regardless, the potential gains that assistant robots can offer to Japan’s ever growing elderly population, and vice versa, is already undeniable. Competition may spark development, but necessity can spur advancement as well. Japan’s elderly healthcare industry can be considered as a very important testbed that would help develop better robots in the future.

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Here is the daily roundup from Japanese consumer tech and tech business websites for Nov. 25, 2014.

NEC to offer repair services after recent earthquake

NEC (TYO: 6701) will be offering discounted repair and restructuring services to consumer tech users who were affected by the recent earthquake at Nagano prefecture.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit the area of Nagano prefecture last Satuday, November 22. While the area’s power grid was unaffected, the earthquake did cause considerable damage to property and infrastructure, which included business institutions and residential homes. NEC offers its services mainly to users in these areas, listing server systems, PCs and a number of mobile devices as eligible items for the repair and restructuring service.

As for eligible users, they will be announced and listed by the Cabinet Office, and the service will be given to them at a 30% discount, regardless of the item or device’s warranty period. The service started last November 22, and will end on May 31, 2015. Complete details for the service are available at the NEC’s official website.

Pioneer provides tablets to middle and elementary schools

Pioneer VC initiated a project that will provide tablets to middle and elementary schools at Kusatsu City in Shiga prefecture. The project’s main goal is to distribute a minimum of at least 3,200 tablet units, using the tablet’s custom educational software to help boost the schools’ teaching programs.

Middle and elementary schools in Kusatsu City have already adopted a variety of different electronic and computer based education systems, however this is the first time that tablets will be used for these institutions. xSync would play a vital role in meshing the custom tablets with the schools’ other data systems, to provide interconnectivity, instant data availability, and to reinforce the overall efficiency of the program.

Aside from tablets, the company will also propose a number of collaborative learning systems to optimize the use of the tablets within each school’s education system. The project was initiated last September this year, and the company now plans to integrate the tablets further into the school’s education system.

Philips introduces next generation home healthcare solutions

Philips has just announced its development of a new home-based healthcare system, which is focused on providing active monitoring for outpatients, and for patients who opt to stay at home during long term treatment.

First revealed at a press conference last end of October, the system was elaborated further recently. It is generally described as an interconnected system that combines telepresence, professional medical attention, nursing care, electronic monitoring and healthcare coordination. This “Hospital to Home” concept takes the idea of comfort using various modern telecommunications technologies. Patients that are instead sent home with the new healthcare system, rather than being forced to stay at a medical institution are expected to recover better.

No announcements of the system’s availability soon, though the company is now currently planning on temporarily implementing it as an emergency service for specific patients.

The post Earthquake Service, School Tablets, Home Healthcare: The Headlines in Tokyo for Nov. 25 appeared first on VR World.

Japanese industrial tools company Union Tool is currently designing a new type of multi-function lighting. Named as the Radar Light, it is designed to provide standard illumination while tracking human activity around its detectable range.

With considerable similarities to various modern lighting systems with presence sensors, the Radar Light is capable of various tracking functions, such as motion detection and heat sensing. Though it may seem as a component for just another non-intrusive security system, it is actually built to be used for monitoring people in medical establishments. The Radar Light is designed to scan and read various vital signs of people within its detectable range.

It can for example, observe sleep levels, track a person’s breathing, check if there are any general abnormalities in a patient’s body, or even determine the body’s current position and posture. The design choice as a standard LED light was made to help patients under observation relax. Its non-intrusive aspect is especially considered to be useful in helping people feel less agitated or nervous, emotional responses which might significantly affect medical readings, accuracy of diagnoses, and efficiency of prescriptions.

The Radar Light communicates all of its tracking data via wireless LAN chip. Data is relayed continuously, and if there would be any negative signs, it can easily and instantly provide a warning to its entire system, enabling a medical staff to take a proper course of action immediately.

The concept that developed Radar Light was a collaborative project headed by Union Tool, supported by CQ-S Net and Japan’s Panasonic System LSI. It has earned a two-year contract support from the Robotic Devices for Nursing Care Project, and will soon be catered to nursing and elderly care facilities. Each unit will be commercially available for about $260.00, and an additional $1,750.00 will be required to set up its server system.

Union Tool is expecting Radar Light to be commercially available on September next year.

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Assistant robots are very important tech assets in Japan today. In fact, its development industry is still growing to be the primary backbone of the country’s elderly healthcare system.

Panasonic, in response to this evolving industry develops its own, one that tries to see what your grandma will do next. The Autonomous Stand and Walk Assistant Robot is, as suggested, an assistant robot that aids elderly people in going about their daily lives. It may not look as charming or advanced as Asimo, but what is unique about this robot is its automatic position assist system. Whenever the person it assists tries to do something, it attempts to determine the user’s course of action, and provides the appropriate assistance.

The robot uses four different modes for this, all of which are designed to help the elderly in changing body positions, such as when sitting, standing or lying down.

The data required for the robot to use this system is collected through six sensors located throughout the unit. The sensors pick up various movement data, which it uses to determine the type of assistance it will do. In the event that a more specific type of assistance will be required, the user may simply readjust the robot’s assist modes to suit the situation.

The assistant robot is now currently being developed further for use in newer elderly private homes and healthcare institutions, especially in establishments where insufficient manpower could be a problem in overall management and operations. Aside from the elderly, the assistant robot is also projected to be very useful for slightly disabled people, for instance those who are recovering from physical injuries, or those that are currently under rehabilitation. The development of the the assistant robot is Panasonic’s very first attempt to enter Japan’s assistant robot industry. The company projects that the new assistant robot will be commercially available as early as 2016.

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Apple has been pushing heath and fitness heavily with their most recent campaign for the iPhone. This can be most noticeable in their recent ad campaign featuring Apple’s iPhone and a series of fitness applications and accessories, which include a multitude of wearables. Their campaign states, “You’re more powerful than you think.”

So, what is Apple getting at here, exactly? That the iPhone, and Apple, can be at the very core of your physical and health success. Surely, there are plenty of people that are already using many of these devices on both their Android and iOS devices, so that doesn’t necessarily set Apple apart from the rest. What will set Apple apart from the rest is how they will very likely incorporate a lot of these different wearables’ functionality into a single device.

According to some of our sources, Apple is looking to make the iWatch a very health-centric device rather than one that is about accomplishing tasks and being an extended digital assistant (See: Google Now + Android Wear). However, there are concerns that Apple’s focus on health with the iWatch may actually hurt them and could have sent the company back to the drawing board in order to increase the overall daily ‘usefullness’ of the device outside of health applications. But even so, Apple is rumored to be purchasing certain types of sensors that will be able to measure your heart rate and sweat in addition to movement data. They’re also becoming ever more serious about how they test these sensors and the functionality of their platform as they’ve been rumored to be spending millions on medical equipment from various manufacturers. The idea that Apple is buying medical equipment should be a pretty ridiculous one, but once you think about how serious Apple is about launching their first new product line in over 4 years, you’ll realize that they don’t want to make any mistakes.

So, there’s no doubt that Apple’s iWatch is going to have a health focus. The real question will be whether or not the iWatch will be almost entirely health focused, or if they will try to build in Siri integration and make the iWatch both functional and health conscious. Because, right now, Google and Microsoft don’t really have much by ways of health applications of their own, let alone hardware. So if Apple can build an iWatch that is health focused, they may already have a significant leg up on Google and Microsoft. Now, if you add heavy Siri integration and other helpful features there’s a good chance that Apple could once again set the standard for a new type of technology, but this time in wearables.

As of right now, I don’t think anyone has any concrete idea of when Apple will launch the iWatch, but from what it looks like it is still majorly in development and we probably won’t see it until next year. Obviously, if they launch sooner, it will put a greater burden on their competitors, but as of right now most of the smart watches from their competitors either haven’t launched yet or lack a native health functionality. Samsung and Qualcomm certainly have the lead in terms of health focus with their smartwatches, but it remains to be seen how far they’ll go and how they’ll compete against an Apple iWatch.

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