What is this??Look realli carefully at this......
Are you doubting if you are guessing correctly?
Yeah you are right!Ta-da! It is a HUMAN WASHING MACHINE!!!
Here are the details....
Japan: Japan Seeks Robotic Help in Caring for the AgedBy James Brooke, the New York TimesMarch 5, 2004
Toshiko Shibahara in the new human washing machine. "The temperature is just right ?the bubbles are really comfortable," she said.
MACHIDA, Japan- With an electronic whir, the machine released a dollop of "peach body shampoo," a kind of body wash. Then, as the cleansing bubbling action kicked in, Toshiko Shibahara, 89, settled back to enjoy the wash and soak cycle of her nursing home's new human washing machine.
"The temperature is just right ?the bubbles are really comfortable," she said, happily sealed up to her neck inside the Sanyo Electric Company's latest elder care product. Turning to an attendant hovering around the pink, clamshell-shaped "assisted-care bath," she asked, "May I have a bit more water, please?"
Futuristic images of elderly Japanese going through rinse and dry cycles in rows of washing machines may evoke chills. But they also point to where the world's most rapidly aging nation is heading.This spring Japanese companies plan to start marketing a "robot suit," a motorized, battery-operated pair of pants designed to help the aged and infirm move around on their own.
Then there is the Wakamaru, a mobile, three-foot-high speaking robot equipped with two camera eyes. It is used largely by working people to keep an eye on their elderly parents at home.These devices and others in the works will push Japanese sales of domestic robots to $14 billion in 2010 and $40 billion in 2025 from nearly $4 billion currently, according to the Japan Robot Association.
Leaders of the Philippines and Thailand, two countries that are negotiating free trade pacts with Japan, suggest a different route: granting work visas to tens of thousands of foreign nurses. But that is unlikely in a nation that last year granted asylum to only 10 refugees and in the last decade has issued about 50,000 work visas a year ?
a fraction of the 640,000 immigrants a year that demographers say are necessary to prevent Japan's population from shrinking.Building on such xenophobia, Japan's nurses' unions successfully lobbied lawmakers of the governing Liberal Democratic Party in late February to block the admission of foreign doctors and nurses.Caught between Japan's high labor costs and anti-immigrant sentiment, some mainstream politicians have even suggested exporting some of Japan's elderly to Thailand and the Philippines, but that has never won much popular support.
So even though the human washing machine retails for almost $50,000, enough to pay a year's wages for two Filipino nurses, robotic home care may lie in the future for Japan's aging millions. Fueling the demand is the decision by the government to push for home care for the elderly.Nursing homes are not seen as a financially viable option in a society where the portion of people aged 65 or over is forecast to soar to 36 percent in 2050, from 19 percent today. By that time there may be only one worker for every retiree.But Japanese women increasingly rebel against traditional expectations that they will stay home to care for aged relatives, creating an ever-larger pool of elderly people in need of care. "There are 600 would-be residents on the waiting list here," said Yukiko Sato, general manager of the Katsura-ryo nursing home here, which has only 80 residents.
A year ago Katsura-ryo became one of the first 100 pioneer companies in Japan to buy Sanyo's new washing machine for people."Residents say it is really good because they warm their whole body, they can take the bath on their own, they can protect their privacy," Ms. Sato said. "As for the staff, it means less burden on their backs. Also, they can save time, because the whole procedure can be done in a very short time."To operate the washer, the user sits in a chair that is rolled backward into place.
The sides of the machine then close like a clamshell, forming an instant tub with the person's head sticking out the top. Shampooing and drying is done by hand.At a Sanyo office in Tokyo, Hiroaki Otsubo, a general director for biomedical business development, noted that the washing machine had been developed by Mitsuru Haruyama, a businessman crippled by muscular dystrophy."Some people in the industry say Japanese people are not able to accept a robot as a nurse, that they attach importance to the humanity aspect," Mr. Otsubo said. "So we are stuck in the middle between efficiency and nursing with a human touch. But if you pay attention to the humanity side, you obviously need labor power."
But several elderly women living in Katsura-ryo said they rather enjoyed their robotic baths."It automatically washes my body, so I am quite happy about it," said Kuni Kikuchi, an 88-year-old in a wheelchair who is paralyzed on her left side after a stroke. "These bubbles are good for the massage effect."Eiko Suzuki, 73, generally agreed, saying: "I like both ways. But it is a machine and it hasn't got a heart. So once they set the program they can't change it midway."Ms. Shibahara, whom the nursing home chose to demonstrate the washing machine, said: "With this `hirb' you don't get a chill. You feel always warm."
On the front of each machine Sanyo stamps "HIRB," short for harmony in roll-lo bathing, because people are rolled in. But for older Americans it might evoke memories of another effort to humanize a machine ?the Disney movie about "Herbie," the Volkswagen "love bug" with feelings.
Amazing isnt it!!!
Yeah.....But I dun want to sit in it....feel so enclosed...
What do you think??
No comments:
Post a Comment