Japanese Hair-Washing Robot.

An aging Japanese population is presenting an exciting business opportunity for robot manufacturers, Panasonic and many other companies showcase sophisticated robots for the ill and elderly at the home care and rehabilitation exhibition in Tokyo. Panasonic says its new hair. Washing robot may look like a glorified barber's chair, but it has been developed to replicate the dexterous touch of a human who might otherwise be employed to wash the hair of the elderly or infirm. Its creators say the machine features up-to-date, robotic technologies to replace human caregivers without degrading the quality of service using robotic hand, technology and 24 robotic fingers. This robot can wash the hair of the elderly or handicapped in a way human hands do in order to support them to have better daily lives, upgraded from its 16 fingered version. The machine now features 24, robotic fingers to shampoo, massage and rinse. In about three minutes. Conditioning and a blow-dry add another 5 minutes to the process. Nakamura says Japan's rapidly aging society supports a healthy market in caregiving robot technologies. Japan is already an aging Society and we see it as a business opportunity. We will develop more caregiving technologies for the elderly or handicapped in Japan and will export those technologies to other aging societies like China and South Korea in the future. The hair-washing robot has not yet been made available to consumers and its price is still to be set. Panasonic plans to sell the machine next year targeting aged care facilities and hospitals. Another high-tech caregiving robot demonstrated by Panasonic, was the robotic bed that doubles as a chair by tilting a controlling toggle. The occupant can move the bed in any direction thanks to roller style, wheels attached underneath it's amazing, because I can lie down or sit up or ride on wheelchair without making any effort. The transformable chair bed is battery-operated and charges automatically while it is docked with the bed. The company's caregiving robot demonstration ended with its mobile communication terminal hospira moe, designed to connect patients with their doctors remotely using high-speed wireless LAN. The built-in camera on hospira moe can send high-definition pictures of a patient at home to a hospital based doctor for remote medical check-ups developers are researching ways to add medical sensors to the robot so that it can also transmit vital data. Panasonic was just one of five hundred and ten exhibitors at the 38th international home care and rehabilitation exhibition. Organizers, say about one hundred and twenty thousand people are expected to attend.