Robots and AI to help Japan’s ageing population
WITH a rapidly ageing population, Japan is increasingly looking to robots and artificial intelligence (AI) to help caregivers in nursing homes take care of elderly people.
For years now, developers in the already high-tech country have been working on simple robots to help caregivers grant the elderly the assistance they need.
Now the world’s third-largest economy wants to expand the range of possible applications for robots and AI.
“The market is growing, we see increasing interest,” says Aiko Takigawa, a manager at Medtec, Asia’s largest trade show for medical devices and care robots.
The focus this year is not on two-legged humanoid helpers,
but on high-tech solutions like AI for the entire medical sector. Japan’s society is ageing at such a rate that it has already led to labour shortages.
One such sector is nursing and care of the elderly.
According to recent estimates by the government, this sector will have a shortage of around 370,000 workers by 2025.
Although Japan wants to attract more foreign workers into the country, experts say such a measure is far from sufficient.
Japan’s ageing population requires more investment in technologies such as AI and robots, according to a recent government report.
One such robot which has proven the power of technology to help caregivers is a furry baby seal called Paro which is designed to help treat diseases like Alzheimer’s. The robot contains sensors that allow it to perceive what is happening in its surroundings, to recognise light and to know where a voice is coming from.
This means it can look at the person talking to it, while also making whining noises and sucking a dummy. The robot, which costs about USD$5,600 (RM22,839), has been in use since 2003 in more than 30 countries, including Japan, Denmark and the United States.
Japanese inventor Takanori Shibata says that research on
people with Alzheimer’s or similar diseases has shown that the company of Paro can reduce depression, anxiety and loneliness. “People with dementia tend to have behavioural problems ... but the interaction with Paro can suppress such negative behaviours such as agitation, depression, wandering or walking around,” he adds. – dpa