Toyota creates robots to assist and support ageing populations
Submitted by Robin Christopherson on Sun, 07/05/2017 - 11:46
Not satisfied with racing competitors to be first at the starting line with self-driving cars, Japanese automaker Toyota is looking to a robotic future for its ageing population.
A caring crisis for the older generations
Much of the world is ageing. We’re living longer through better nutrition and medical care, but Japan has a considerably higher percentage of older people in its population than the global average. This is due to a very low birth rate that continues to decrease year on year. The over 65s accounted for 26.7% of the population in 2015, far exceeding the global average of about 8.5%.
With this demographic comes labour shortages, a looming pension crisis and the various challenges of caring for this ageing population and keeping them healthy and mobile.
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At the same time, car sales in Japan have fallen 8.5% between 2013-2016, as older drivers stop buying cars and car ownership also becomes less of a priority among younger drivers.
This combination of reducing car sales and the increasing needs of older citizens to remain mobile has lead Toyota, the world's second largest automaker, to explore the possibility that designing and manufacturing robots to both care for the elderly and help keep this age group mobile may be as important as producing cars in the coming decades.
Toyota recently announced its first foray into commercialising rehabilitation robots, launching a rental service for its 'Walk Training Assist’ system, which helps patients to learn how to walk again after suffering strokes and other conditions.
Toyota's system follows the release by another major Japanese carmaker Honda of its own "robotic legs” in 2015 which were based on technology developed for its ASIMO dancing robot.
According to the International Federation of Robotics, global sales of assistance robots for the elderly and disabled communities will total about 37,500 units in 2016-2019 and this is expected to increase substantially within the next 20 years.
Rent a car – own a robot
In many countries around the world car ownership has been in decline. If you consider the implications of self-driving cars, which have the potential to turn private transport into a convenient commodity available at a moment’s notice and vastly more affordable than the purchase and up-keep of a car that, on average, sits unused for 96% of the time taking up space and depreciating at an alarming rate, then Toyota’s strategy to branch out into a growth area of consumer robotics seems to be a sensible one.
No matter how you do the calculations, in future we'll only need a fraction of the numbers of cars when cars can drive around the clock - only briefly stopping from time to time to top up their batteries. Thus it may be that the autonomous cars of the future will not be privately owned, but simply hailed as the need arises.
In contrast, the robots of tomorrow may be seen as an invaluable part of every home - helping everyone with daily tasks around the house, or assisting those with dexterity or mobility difficulties to move around, do the chores and stay active.
Robots are a man’s best friend
Disabled people have long had help on-hand to enable them to be more independent. Speaking as a guide dog owner, I know how extremely useful some extra help can be when getting around. Dogs are also used to help people with hearing, dexterity, mobility and anxiety challenges – as well as invaluable early-warning systems for those with epilepsy.
However, even man’s faithful friend has his limitations. Technology is increasingly augmenting the abilities of people with impairments due to age or disability. For example, I use my smartphone on a daily basis to know where I am and what’s around me – as well as for a thousand other things that vastly increase my life and work choices.
Thus, while I’m quite confident that robots won’t be replacing what a well-trained canine can do any time soon, they will undoubtedly be working alongside them (and their human counterparts) to ease and extend the everyday lives of millions of people in Japan and around the world.
From cars to carers
Toyota hopes to make a wide range of robots with practical applications. Isobe said that mass producing robots would be a natural step for the company whose mission is to "make practical products which serve a purpose.”
“The biggest challenges have been in determining the needs of the robot market, which is relatively new, and to ensure that our products are safe," Isobe add. “If there's a need for mass produced robots, we should do it with gusto."
Toyota’s vision for the robots of tomorrow is one of smart and sophisticated enablers, continuously helping you and your family members from minute-to-minute rather than just from A to B.
One day, in the not too distant future, the sight of robots helping people both at home and on the streets of our towns and cities, may be as common as the sight of cars is today.
Are you an older person who needs help to make tech work better for you? Know an older person who needs IT help at home? Try our volunteer ITCanHelp service.
Submitted by catherine.grinyer@abilitynet.org.uk on Thu, 04/05/2017 - 12:19
Digital tech inventors and innovators have just five days left to enter the seventh AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards.
Nominations close at 5pm on Monday 8 May 2017 for these unique awards, which celebrate the amazing people who use digital technology to make the world a better place. Entry for the awards, which are sponsored by BT, is free of charge and open to any business, charity, individual or public body in the UK – just submit your details at www.tech4goodawards.com/enter-now/.
Anyone can nominate themselves or someone else for an award in eight categories:
· AbilityNet Accessibility Award
· BT Connected Society
· BT Young Pioneer
· Comic Relief Tech4Good for Africa Award
· Community Impact Award
· Digital Health Award
· Digital Skills Award
· Tech Volunteer of the Year
The Tech4Good Awards are organised by AbilityNet Head of Marketing and Communications, Mark Walker. He said:
“Now is the last chance for people to enter the AbilityNet Tech4Good Awards 2017.
“These awards recognize people’s achievements and showcase them in the tech industry and in the wider world.
“This is a chance for digital tech inventors and innovators to tell their story and show people how they have used digital technology to improve the lives of others.”
There is a networking event for the finalists on 13 June at BT Tower, London, and the awards ceremony is on 11 July at BT Centre.
Submitted by Alex.Barker on Wed, 03/05/2017 - 13:05
What do Lady Gaga, Robin Williams, Rio Ferdinand and Prince Harry have in common? Not much, you might think, but they have all opened up about their struggles with their mental health. Mental health seems to be one of the last taboos - we seem to be happy talking about our physical health but much less so comfortable discussing our mental health.
This week is Mental Health week and as AbilityNet helps a considerable number of people with mental health issues we are sharing some useful resources. We're only too aware of the devastating effect that poor mental health can have on people at home, at work and in education - and we also know that getting the right computer set up can really help people manage the day to day impact on their lives.
Computer technology can be a real asset to people with mental health issues. Here are 5 easy ways of your mental healthwhen using a computer.
The Free Mindfulness project showcases lots of simple exercises you can do to help relieve stress
Help me chill has a great playlist of calming ambient music. Really useful for when you need to get work done, or just to shut out the outside world
Mediation timer is a simple countdown timer which means you can just take a few minutes out of your day to rela
Podcasts are very popular and there are several on the subject of anxiety and how to cope with i
Natural readers can take the stress out of reading text. Just sit back and listen!
Have a busy life? Take control of your lists with an app such as Wunderlist or visual task manager Drop Task
Need more help?
Call our free helpline for one to one advice on 0800 269 545
The guidelines produced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), inform web developers how to make websites as user-friendly as possible. They cover a wide range of recommendations for people with disabilities including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these.
When the guidelines - which are the result of cooperative efforts between software developers, academics and other related groups - are followed, they make web content more usable for everyone in general.
WCAG 2.1 is currently scheduled to become a recommendation in June 2018. At the moment it's available as a first working public draft, meaning a significant amount of refinement will happen before being adopted as a technical recommendation. For interest, here is the process through which W3C develops guidelines.
What's new in global web accessibility standards?
There are many proposals in the document, including one designed to ensure that websites are compatible with voice recognition software as a basic measure - a single A rating, and that to achieve a higher level AA rating, the guide says a site should have no unsolicited pop-ups or a way to turn them off.
These examples show that the guidelines are becoming more inclusive, and covering a greater range of abilities and needs.
We work with major businesses and organisations to make sure they reach more visitors, and ensure they meet legal accessbility requirements. Click here for help with web accessibility.