
Spoiler
You've ruined my 4 year old's day.
Japanese robot boffins - that is, human roboticists - have created a smart air-cushion hoverchair in remarkable WALL-E fashion. The chair's makers are touting it initially for use by the elderly, rather than the intergalactically indolent. CNET reports that the chair, developed by the Osaka Robot Lab, features a sportscar- …
...of NETFLIX, i punched up WALL-E and watched it right away.
It was an enjoyable little film that i would have missed. Of course the real problem in Space is the opposite, bone loss. A secondary problem with bone loss on the ISS was that all that calcium ended up clogging the urine recycler.
Thanks elReg, i would never have watched the movie without the article.
...we leave the darkness and enter a new dawn. For generations the elderly have had to make do with being supported by a cushion of mere cushions. Now they can take advantage of the very same technology that has made hovercraft the most desirable form of transport on the planet.
Whether it be roaring up a shingle beach flaring vitimised shellflish and Channel flotsam behind them or caroming down the ward halls like an airhockey puck, tomorrow's partially mobile OAP will experience unparalleled freedom and amenity.
Untethered from the soul smothering predictability of the wheel, tomorrow's elderly can drift easily down, along, across and around the city streets - assured that minimal friction and the laws of motion will make "traditional" road collisions a thing of the past .
How lucky we are, to live in such times!
The whole difficulty with moving obese/otherwisely-abled people around is not the actual moving them from A to B - once you've got them in a wheelchair even a small child can push them around. The trouble is getting them in and out of bed and on to the various tables (operating/CRT/etc) as required. This device does not help with this so does not help the nurses...
Sorry - cool idea but useless for helping in the role described...
It's called assisted selection (as in natural selection). Anyway, once you're in hospital you may ask yourself whether your natural time to bite the (infested?) dust is already past. And don't bother me with objections about medical staff, visitors and such. The very same is true for them, just on a different level.
(No, you don't die of cynicism. Years and years of experience proved cynicism is _not_ lethal. At least not for the one who bears it.)
would prevent bedsores, and I think was tried years ago.
I suspect energy wise the making beds with some kind of towing thingy which could engage a mobile AGV would be a more cost effective solution. Although the DARPA style "Smart stretcher" has some attractions.
Humans get more expensive over time. Anthing that eliminates the routine would be a good idea.
1984 was a documentary on what happens when you let politicians and police gain too much surveillance and control over peoples' private lives. Have we learned from this?
Soylent Green was a documentary on what happens when we let people breed without restriction. Have we learned from this?
These "documentaries" aren't taken as warnings. They're used as instruction manuals, because people are stupid.
I'm doing a documentary on Japanese robots and I shot some footage in Tokyo of a chair that cost 250,000 dollars US that the Institute of Robotic Technology built. The floor has a pattern so you can program the chair to go anywhere in the house using voice command. Like Wall-E.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/J-Robot/140350212868
...was most definitely and allegorical look at the elevation of the collective, as Humanity, at the expense of, the collective, as humanity. Themes explored include freedom as an identifying characteristic of humanity being sacrificed in order to advance the goals of Humanity, and selflessness being taken to the extreme of action without self leading to a veritable singularity of selfishness - the "none" benefiting at the expense of the "all".
In documentary form.
I am willing to admit that some or all of that was bollocks, but as it may prove to demonstrate a causal link with any subsequent acts of civil disturbance, I choose to call it Research Bollocks.
...but am I the only one here who thinks that just when the USA has pretty much nailed down the crown for Weirdest Goddamn' Society On The Planet, along come the Japanese to snatch away first place?
I mean, jeez... whale popsicles, self-mobile soda machines, robot sex dolls... now _this_?
Aaaauuuuuugggghhhhhhh.