First there was WALL-E the movie quickly followed by lookalike toys for Christmas 2008. The adorable robot obviously inspired engineers at Sony to work on a next generation mechatronic device that is specifically seen as a tool for future seniors and/or next generation nursing home facilities. This particular invention zeros in on safety issues as well as the mechanics behind the robotic limbs to include brakes and the use of actuators. Of course, Sony also has to ensure that the robots don't go haywire while in the care of seniors in their homes. Sony states that "In the case of an industrial robot, separating the working area with a fence generally ensures the safety. However, separating the working area with a fence is difficult in the case of a housekeeping or nurse caring robot because the robot behaves while physically in contact with an individual." Today's mega-capitalists are definitely driven to kill off more human filled jobs each and every year while trying to not kill off their future clients, the wealthy elderly.
Sony Working on Robot for Care Giving Market
The parents who brought their kids to see the Pixar movie called WALL-E may very well be the generation that will actually use these mechatronic devices that we lovingly call robots. You could say that the movie was simply desensitizing the accompanying adults to the eventual use of these devices in the future.
In fact, earlier this year a little gem of a movie called Robot and Frank was all about this very subject matter. Actors Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon takes us to a future where Frank is a man whose increasing memory loss worries his family and they want him to change his lifestyle to keep him safe. Frank is given the choice between "a home" and a new technology – a robot home health aide.
There's no better way to butter up your future clients than to provide them with a little entertaining propaganda, oops, I mean creative marketing of course. Sony may not be alone in eyeing this lucrative future market. Microsoft is known to have a few patents in respect to future robots and who knows; perhaps Apple is already preparing their intelligent assistant known as Siri for this future market.
Sony's patent application was originally filed in Japan in May 2011 and a year later in the US. The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published it earlier this month.
You know, the more you think about it, it's pretty easy to imagine these robots being controlled by a future PS20 game controller to get the robot to fetch things and shoot intruders breaking into your home. Hell, we already know how to do that with a Sony gaming console. And you could always blame the out of control robot.
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