December 13, 2008

Creepy robot to monitor seniors


The University of Tokyo, one of Japan's leading robot developers, recently unveiled a prototype elder-care bot called Mamoru that is designed to keep tabs on those prone to having senior moments.

The prestigious school's Information and Robot Technology Research Initiative (IRT) unveiled a slightly creepy granny robot called Mamoru ("to protect") that reminds forgetful users where they left their glasses or the remote control, or when to take their medicine.

The system makes use of a wide-angle camera and image-recognition software to monitor the locations of objects that have been registered by the user.

Toyota Motor, Fujitsu and other major firms helped out in the project, which aims at commercialization within 10 years.

From Robot Watch