Japan's therapeutic robots

If you ever needed a way to illustrate the difference between the US and Japan when it comes to technology, you need look no further than the fact that in Japan they're already well on their way to having robots take care of the elderly (we're just getting started here). The New York Times had an article about this a few weeks ago, focusing mainly on robotic machines for washing people and that sort of thing, but the AP has a story about the use of robots for more therapeutic purposes (no, not like that!). Mainly it involves helping people with memory loss by making robots that mimic cuddly animals, like the Paro, a robotic baby seal, or dressing up Sony's Aibo robotic dog in plush clothing (do we detect the beginnings of a new trend?)

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source: engadget

Japan develops five-fingered robotic hand

While this certainly isn't the first robotic-fingered hand that we've ever seen, we're always in favor of technology improving dexterity. Those smartypants at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan (aka AIST) have developed a robotic hand about the size of a human adult male's, measuring 18cm (7.08-inches) from fingertip to wrist and 8.4cm (3.3-inches) across the palm. It also has some sort of mechanism designed to "reduce backlash," which apparently means it'll get more precise control over whatever human it's throttling object it's gripping. We still don't know if that means that now these robots can sew their own gloves yet, though.
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source:engadet

Soken shows off mostly ugly wall of e-ink in Japan

Thus far, we've seen OLED rule the FDP International floor in Japan, but now we've got one more emerging display technology showing off its merits: e-ink. Soken Chemical & Engineering Company demonstrated a wall of 30- x 30-centimeter e-ink paper displays in order to showcase just what the technology was capable of. Quite honestly, we're still struggling to see just what that is. Practicality aside, it's still pretty fascinating to think that all of the colors you see above are being emitted from ultrathin displays, though the choice of pattern is questionable at best.

source:Engadget