'A Robot is Like a Friend' in Japan
Japan is pioneering robot technology to help make everyday life easier for people with disabilities. Pioneering inventions include a robot guide for the blind, and robotic legs which can help disabled people stand up and walk.
The following Video is taken from BBC (A BBC's Roland Buerk reports from Osaka).
A Japanese company has developed what may be a way forward. It is a robotic wrap around belt and legs, like a mechanical pair of trousers, that can be attached to a patient to help them stand up and take steps. Even one of the worst health crises of her long life does not stop Nobuko Nishi smiling. The 77-year-old beams at the doctors and nurses as she uses her right leg to scoot her wheelchair down a corridor in a hospital outside Tokyo. A month ago she had a stroke and it has left her left side severely weakened.
Her left arm is in a sling, her left leg propped up on a footrest. Mrs Nishi has been chosen to try out a new device developed to help people like her walk again. It is a pair of robotic legs. A physiotherapist helps strap her in. From a hip joint there are struts running down the outside of her thighs, to another joint level with her knees. The metal and plastic rods also run down her calves to special shoes she can put her feet in. The two limbs are joined together by a wide belt that goes round the back of Mrs Nishi's hips.
