It looks like a scene from Robocop or one of the Terminator movies: A human steps into a sleek robot suit and is miraculously transformed, suddenly capable of astonishing feats of strength.
But this is no sci-fi film -- it's a promotional video by Cyberdyne, a Japanese electronics company. It shows an elderly male patient with Parkinson's disease being strapped into a robotic skeleton that, using sensors attached to the wearer's skin, reacts to nerve impulses and moves its "arms" and "legs" accordingly.
The robotic suit, known as the Hybrid Assisted Limb (or HAL), is designed to boost its wearer's strength by a multiple of 10. In July, it allowed the patient at the Seiko En nursing home in Tsurugashima, Japan, to walk for the first time in two years, Cyberdyne CEO Yoshiyuki Sankai says.
"I was surprised," Sankai admits. "I expected him to stand up, but not to walk."
From lifelike robots to other devices that will feed you or simply share a chat, Japan's government and gadget-makers are pioneering a wave of products aimed at improving the lives of senior citizens around the world.
Japan is a global leader in electronics and robotics, and its population is aging even faster than the USA's. So much of the technology being unveiled here is likely a preview of what's ahead for American Baby Boomers as they move into their twilight years, says Majd Alwan, director of the Center for Aging Services Technologies, a Washington-based consortium of U.S. technology companies and researchers.
"The aging crisis drove (Japan's) government and scientific community to invest significantly in technologies for the elderly, and robotics in particular," Alwan says.
He says some similar projects are in development in the USA, including research on home assistant robots at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, but nationwide the amount of money and manpower involved is "significantly lower" than in Japan.
Among the products in development in Japan: A robotic bed from Panasonic that transforms into a joystick-controlled wheelchair on the user's spoken command. There's also Riba, a robot nurse disguised as a giant teddy bear, which can lift patients weighing up to 134 pounds.
Those who merely are seeking companionship can turn to the robotic, seal-like pet known as Paro, which will hit U.S. stores before Christmas.
HAL will make its debut in the United States on Monday at the annual meeting of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) in Chicago. The robotic suit has yet to find broad appeal in Japan -- it's expensive, at $2,400 for a month's rental, and some users say they find it uncomfortable to wear. (continued...)
© 2009 USA TODAY under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.
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