http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200505050118.html
Ministry predicts robot nurses in '25
05/05/2005
By TAKASHI KAMIGURI
The Asahi Shimbun
Japan in 2025 will have household robot nurses that can help lift elderly
people into wheelchairs from their beds.
Everyone will be watching TV on 45-inch flat-screen panels that cost a
mere 45,000 yen. And the five-year survival rate for cancer will be 20
percentage points higher than it is today.
Those are some of the predictions set forth in the Strategic Technology
Roadmap released recently by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
The ministry's view of the future is based on predictions made by 300
scientists and engineers working in cutting-edge technology fields.
The ministry's crystal ball offers mostly down-to-earth predictions, the
officials said. The road map is aimed at helping to focus limited research and
development budgets on priority projects in fields that are more feasible.
The 200-page road map, distributed to research institutes and businesses,
gives predictions for the next two to three decades in 20 fields, including
telecommunications, space exploration and the environment.
The report says one of the biggest changes in the home will be widespread
use of robots to do chores.
In 2025, a cleaning robot will vacuum and mop floors without human
supervision. A separate robot will move furniture out of the way.
Robot nurses will make life easier for elderly people or people with
disabilities by helping them to the bathroom or performing other jobs.
Still, these won't be androids. They will be unable to walk, think or
talk like humans because neither artificial intelligence nor smooth bipedal
movement for robots is likely to be achieved by that time.
The ministry did not foresee dramatic changes in the entertainment
industry, either. In 2025, 3-D imaging for televisions is unlikely.
But nanotechnology advances will cut the price of a flat-screen
television, now 10,000 yen per inch, down to 1,000 yen per inch. That will make
a 45-inch TV set cost about 45,000 yen.
In medicine, the report predicts that progress in delivering
cancer-fighting drugs more directly to ailing tissue, for example, will likely
raise the average five-year survival ratio by 20 percentage points.
In Japan, no nationwide statistics on survival ratios are available. But
figures for Osaka Prefecture show that the five-year survival ratio for people
first diagnosed with cancer between 1993 and 1995 was 40.8 percent, up from
30.4 percent for those diagnosed between 1975 and 1977.
In organ or tissue transplants, experts predict technology for grafting
artificially cultivated heart tissue or liver cells will be put into practical
use within 10 years. In two decades, such cultivation technology will grow new
bones and other organ tissue in the lab.
The road map also says a project to recover carbon dioxide from the air
and store it underground to stem global warming will be in full swing 10 years
from now.
In rocket technology, lower costs and higher reliability for domestically
developed rockets will be the norm by 2020.
But the road map stopped short of predicting when Japan will put humans
into space using domestically produced technology.(IHT/Asahi: May 5,2005)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease?
Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/OCfFmA/UOnJAA/E2hLAA/BRUplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
***************************************************************************
Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg
Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. www.ppi-india.org
***************************************************************************
__________________________________________________________________________
Mohon Perhatian:
1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik)
2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari.
3. Lihat arsip sebelumnya, www.ppi-india.da.ru;
4. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
5. No-email/web only: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
6. kembali menerima email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
