He's got the be the cutest robo you will see all day but he's more than the most expensive Christmas gift Macy's will offer this year for the rich kids so you may wish to pause for a moment to consider what in the world anyone could ever do with a robo fur seal if it's more than for amusing children.
No, the practical application is not as some type of twisted sex toy to amuse Japanese. (Hey, how is that racist when they make the best sexbots)
(Ed: enough jacking around. What does it do?)
The robo fur seal can calm people in nursing homes who may suffer from dementia and get agitated. It's said they can sometimes even calm to the point of talking. In fact, the robo fur seals have been so helpful in this way, a care facility in New Zealand acquired a colony of thirteen robo fur seals for their patients. (NZ Herald: NZ aged care trust wins for robotic baby fur seal 'colony')
There wasn't a way to copy the video from the site but it's worth seeing since it demonstrates the capability of this novel robo.
Here's an after-purchase vide of the robo fur seal after being adopted by a childless family in Japan. This video gives a fair idea of the robo but the video by PAROBOTS on the NZ site is highly-explanatory and interesting.
PAROBOTS is the outfit which makes the robos and this is a brief description of its sensors:
PAROBOTS says its baby fur seals have five kinds of sensors: tactile, light, audition, temperature and posture. Those enable the robot to perceive people and its environment.
"With the light sensor, PARO can recognise light and dark. He feels being stroked and beaten by tactile sensor, or being held by the posture sensor. PARO can also recognise the direction of voice and words such as its name, greetings, and praise with its audio sensor.
- NZ Herald
Much as it looks like it's just some plush toy cuddle puppy, it's a highly-intelligent and responsive robo now proven to have therapeutic goodness. This is not speculative science when it's in live production right now.
There's no need to try to be clever with some sci fi extension since I respect the cleverness of designing it such that it has actual therapeutic benefit. It's nice that a childless couple can enjoy one but it gets me when I see old confused people brought to a state of calm through contact with one. Now it becomes something very special indeed.
Sure the robos are coming but some will make you smile.
There's no need to try to be clever with some sci fi extension since I respect the cleverness of designing it such that it has actual therapeutic benefit. It's nice that a childless couple can enjoy one but it gets me when I see old confused people brought to a state of calm through contact with one. Now it becomes something very special indeed.
Sure the robos are coming but some will make you smile.
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