The day may not be far off when you visit a high end spa, you may no longer see humans interacting with you. You may find robots shampooing your hair and giving you great massages and facials instead of beauticians.
Robots are replacing all services these days; you have robots to do your household chores, robots to brew you coffee, robots to service you on restaurants and now, to give you relaxing fine massages! The Waseda Asahi Oral Rehabilitation Robot 1 (WAO-1) robot was developed by the Japanese researchers to give therapeutic facial massages for patients having jaw-related medical problems who need facial massages as a part of their treatment.
The movements of the arms of the robot are controlled by a complex set of algorithms designed to emulate massages and six sensors at the base of the arms measure and adjust the pressure applied by the golf sized ceramic spheres. The technology is more refined than those in electric massage chairs because the facial bone structure is much more fragile than back or spine bones.
The clinical trials of using these robots for massages are to begin in November. Once the government safety panel approves this, they may soon be a regular feature in spas and hospitals.
However good the massages turn out to be, it can never replace the soft, warm and the personal touch of humans. What do you think?
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