Japanese Patients Shun Robot Helpers, Throwing High-Tech Future of Elder Care Into Doubt
41 replies, posted
[QUOTE]In Japan, robot-led weddings, robot factory workers and even squeaky robot pets are all fine and good. But in-home helper bots, which are the main goal of many robotics research projects, are anything but widespread, even in that robo-friendly country. Apparently old people and sick people, even in Japan, still prefer that human touch.
Rather than humanoid robots that do favors like pick up juice boxes, and even be-limbed ‘bots that wash people’s hair, some roboticists are increasing their focus on machines like self-adjusting beds that turn into wheelchairs, as this BBC story reports.
Especially in Japan, efforts to build lifelike, useful humanoid robots often center on care for the elderly. Japan is an aging country, and it admits very few immigrants who could work as nursing home attendants or in-home care providers. But so far, the robots can’t do enough to be very useful, robot companies and analysts tell the BBC.
Cute, pet-like robot companions have sold modestly well, the BBC notes — more than 1,000 Paro baby seal 'bots are in Japanese nursing homes and hospitals, as well as private homes. This is not a staggering figure, but that could be because of its $2,800 price tag.
Joseph Engelberger, 85, who invented the first industrial robot in the 1950s, said robots ought to be more common. Every year, 200,000 elderly Americans fall and break a leg, and robots could help prevent that, he tells the BBC: “Robots should cost the same as a Mercedes and could be rented out. That would be a bargain compared to paying $600 a week for help.”
After years of spending billions of yen on humanoid robot research, the Japanese government is increasingly focused on simpler, more practical robot platforms that can perform simple tasks. The five-year Home-use Robot Practical Application Project, started in 2009, seeks a bot that can be used as both a wheelchair and bed; a cleaning robot; a security robot; a wearable robot suit that assists daily activities; and a two-wheeled rideable robot, according to Tech-On.
These single-minded ‘bots might be more palatable to elderly people and patients, the BBC says — already, some hospital robots have been abandoned because patients didn’t like them. A $100,000 hospital model “put patients off,” the BBC says: “We want humans caring for us, not machines,” one patient said.
[img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/RibaForkLift_0.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-02/some-japanese-patients-shun-robot-helpers-throwing-future-elder-care-doubt[/url]
I wouldn't let those things touch me unless they looked like the cast of Scrubs
[b]IT HAS No EYES.[/b]
Am i the only one who sees pedobear?
Humans will always be better at caring than the fucking robots.
[QUOTE=The golden;27896429]I don't know about you, but I would prefer compassionate human to a pile of cold metal and wires any day.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, well, you'll always know what to expect from a machine.
It's not as if all humans are compassionate in this day and age, by any means.
[QUOTE=JgcxCub;27897253]Yeah, well, you'll always know what to expect from a machine.
It's not as if all humans are compassionate in this day and age, by any means.[/QUOTE]
Of course, but give them money and they can atleast pretend to be passionate.
Robots, on the other hand, just stare into your soul with their dead eyes... watching, waiting.
[QUOTE=The golden;27896429]I don't know about you, but I would prefer compassionate human to a pile of cold metal and wires any day.[/QUOTE]
I'd prefer the "pile of cold metal and wires" to the human being. The former wouldn't be there to judge me and my old decrepit form. It would also be there whenever I needed it...not just for a few hours a day. I could be a grumpy old man at it and it wouldn't care in the slightest.
[QUOTE=sharzu;27896959]Am i the only one who sees pedobear?
Humans will always be better at caring than the [b]fucking robots[/b].[/QUOTE]
Does it cum?
Those darn machines...
[QUOTE=sharzu;27896959]Am i the only one who sees pedobear?[/QUOTE]
It's pedobear's cousin, oldbear
I don't like that Japan is starting to depend so heavily on robots. I mean, it's cool and all, but it's reaching the point of too much.
If we get a breakthrough and finally achieve true AI, i wouldn't mind. No human to judge me, and if the AI does it, just flip a switch to show who is boss. Hopefully the AI won't be pissed when you turn it back on, that could be bad.
The robot rebellion is near!
[QUOTE=Glitch360;27897999]I don't like that Japan is starting to depend so heavily on robots. I mean, it's cool and all, but it's reaching the point of too much.[/QUOTE]
Soon they're gonna be like Australia in TF2, with Utopian Cities and Hovercars everywhere, while everyone else is still driving on the ground.
[QUOTE=MasterG;27898995]If we ever find a way to develop an AI to the complexity and diversity we see in human beings, then this might be an option.
I can't see it being quite as impossible as people make it out to be. If we can create a simulation of evolution (admittedly, that's the hard part) and accelerate the evolution of the AI over millions of years, with a helping hand every here and there...[/QUOTE]
If you intend to go to the trouble of trying to generate a new sentient species, why not just hire a human being?
[QUOTE=ChristopherB;27899324]If you intend to go to the trouble of trying to generate a new sentient species, why not just hire a human being?[/QUOTE]
Yeah, plus there is the lack of Terminator-esque armageddon with human caretakers.
But can the robots cook, pay your bills, help you to the bathroom, etc? Until all that's feasible, I guess I'd rather have a human. Afterwards, those, bring in the machinenmensch.
I want a fleet of helper robots that fit into the walls of my house that look like this.
[img]http://www.purplepawn.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/necron_warrior.jpg[/img]
Of course those guns would be extendo grabber claws.
The Japanese should design the robots to vibrate, then female patients will be onboard with the robot program. Put a Fleshlight expansion kit on the other ones and bam- male patients will come to love them.
Asimov
The problem is maybe that they still haven't figured out how to make them look not terrible, terrifying or creepy as hell.
What is that supposed to be in the picture? Who should take that seriously? Mostly the robots look better even without the case and just wires and metal because everything they come up with is ridiculous or scary.
I'd rather have a person bring me medicine, not something that looks like killbot 2000
you're all prejudiced
50 years from now our grandchildren (bear with me here) will look back on these threads and cringe at how we could be so discriminatory towards our robotic brethren
Of course they shun robots when they look like something out of a kid's nightmare.
[QUOTE=sharzu;27896959]Am i the only one who sees pedobear?
Humans will always be better at caring than the fucking robots.[/QUOTE]
I'm going to disagree on that one. Robots can communicate at the speed of light, so once they're advanced enough, they could access the huge library of medical knowledge we have and administer on-the-spot care for anyone, regardless of what they've come down with. Compare that to a human who would take longer to figure out what the problem was, acquire the necessary tools, get assistance and then administer the drugs/surgery with human error.
And of course, humans need rest. A robot could give unending, tireless care.
[img_thumb]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/RibaForkLift_0.jpg[/img_thumb]
Are they crazy? Of course they would prefer a human over that... thing.
[QUOTE=QwertySecond;27902240]I'm going to disagree on that one. Robots can communicate at the speed of light, so once they're advanced enough, they could access the huge library of medical knowledge we have and administer on-the-spot care for anyone, regardless of what they've come down with. Compare that to a human who would take longer to figure out what the problem was, acquire the necessary tools, get assistance and then administer the drugs/surgery with human error.
And of course, humans need rest. A robot could give unending, tireless care.[/QUOTE]
So if that thing sticks something in your ass and tells you it's for your own good, you would be ok with it?
What i mean is that it's better to have a human being staying and help another human being than having a a robot without a soul. I would rather die than stay with that "thing" alone
[QUOTE=sharzu;27902457]So if that thing sticks something in your ass and tells you it's for your own good, you would be ok with it?
What i mean is that it's better to have a human being staying and help another human being than having a a robot without a soul. I would rather die than stay with that "thing" alone[/QUOTE]
how do you know that humans have souls?
from a reductionist viewpoint, humans are nothing more than incredibly complex carbon-based machines
[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;27903013]how do you know that humans have souls?
from a reductionist viewpoint, humans are nothing more than incredibly complex carbon-based machines[/QUOTE]
In supernatural, Sam got his soul back. That's how i know humans have souls.
Anyway, you guys don't seem to figure out what i tried to say in my previous posts.
[QUOTE=sharzu;27902457]So if that thing sticks something in your ass and tells you it's for your own good, you would be ok with it?
What i mean is that it's better to have a human being staying and help another human being than having a a robot without a soul. I would rather die than stay with that "thing" alone[/QUOTE]
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Marvin-TV-3.jpg[/img]
You think it's bad being stuck with a terminally depressed robot? Try being a terminally depressed robot.
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