Robot Pets Help Elderly Japanese Cope In Tsunami Aftermath

Last week, we talked about a Singapore research team making a robot that is supposed to “love” its user like a person does. Today, let’s look at PARO, a marvelous robot from Japan designed to look and act like a baby harp seal and give the user a simulation of interaction with a pet.

The story that brought Paro to Techcitement’s attention comes from a nursing home near Tokyo that had been evacuated following the March 2011 tsunami due to its proximity to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

A week after they returned, the robotics division of Japanese company Daiwa House offered to lend Suisyoen two of its seal robots coated with anti-bacterial fur, now nicknamed Love and Peace for two years.

The robots normally cost around 12,000 yen ($155) a month to lease.

The furry friends are now treated as pets by the residents, with many of them still dealing with memories of the quake. Some residents hold onto the seals for longer than others.

“If I hold onto this, it doesn’t matter if there’s a typhoon outside, I still feel safe,” said 85-year-old Satsuko Yatsuzaka after she had been hugging one of the seals for about half an hour.

Local media have reported that more than half of the victims of the tsunami were over 65 years old, with survivors still attempting to heal their mental scars.

Let’s take a bit of a closer look at Paro. The following video from DigInfo has more specific information.

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Paro’s developers have put a remarkable amount of thought into the robot’s features. With sensors along its body, Paro reacts positively when it is being stroked in the right direction and learns which of its actions result in positive attention. It has light sensors to know when it’s night and responds when you call its name.

Also, the charger takes the form of a pacifier that Paro sucks on. If you aren’t impressed with that bit of design genius, I don’t know what to tell you.

According to the following video from a 2009 trade show, Paro even has a temperature-controlled body, making it as warm as a live animal when a patient is holding it.

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Paro has been proven to work well with children with Down Syndrome and Alzheimer’s patients in nursing homes, both situations in which pet therapy would be tremendously helpful to alleviate depression and separation anxiety in patients, but is sometimes impossible due to fear of the pet’s safety.

Even President Obama tried Paro out at APEC (Applied Power Electronics Conference) 2010 and seemed impressed with the little guy.

Paro isn’t cheap; as noted earlier, each robot has a lease price of roughly $155 per month, and DigInfo places the purchase price at around $4500. If the results are as impressive as they seem to be, you can expect to see Paro pop up at forward-thinking nursing homes and hospitals around the country.