日本机器人能说会画 为老年人分忧.docVIP

精品论文 参考文献 日本机器人能说会画 为老年人分忧 Robots that can chat,find misplaced glasses,draw aeroplanes and play with your children are attracting thousands of visitors during an expo in Tokyo as Japan adapts to changes in society. Robots, such as the sound-sensitive Chapit, answer sim-ple questions and even joke with peo-ple to help the soli-tary fight loneliness and stay alert in old age. “Many older people in Japan live alone and have no one to talk to,”said Kazuya Kita-mura, a representative of the expo organizer. “Communication robots accompany people and don’t mind listening to the same stories over and over again.” While Chapit, a relatively simple robot, managed to attract a corporate partner, many researchers, such as Kiyoshi Matsumoto, a professor at the University of Tokyo, struggle to attract sponsors for more expensive projects. Matsumoto’s “Personal Mobility Robot”, equipped with four cameras and a sensor to recognize the user’s centre of gravity, is designed to help the elderly move around without pressing buttons,using joysticks or rotating wheels as in traditional wheelchairs. The robot can also help find misplaced spectacles by identify-ing them with a sensor. “We have developed a robot that can assist many people, but because of the high cost, we still haven’t found a sponsor,”said Matsumoto, who added that the cost of the machine, if mass-produced, would be com-parable to that of a compact car. “In the current economic environment there are few companies willing to invest in such a costly project,”he said. Other robots, such as the award-win-ning “DiGRO”can support busy parents who have little time to play with their chil- dren. The robot can use the Internet to find a simple image and then drawpictures,keeping children company while parents work. Japan is one of the world’s fastest-ageing societies and the government pre-dicts that by 2050 the proportion of people ov