I note with some trepidation that a Japanese company is producing a training mannequin for dentists and dental technicians . . . with some unlikely assistance.
Japanese researchers have created a dentistry-training robot that can flinch, gag, blink and try to carry on a conversation with cotton stuffed in its mouth - effectively mimicking a real human visit to the dentist.
The Showa Hanako 2 is designed to be as realistic as possible for training practitioners say researchers at Showa University in Japan.
What's interesting about the all-to-realistic robot is that one of Japan's top sex doll makers, Orient Industry, was brought in to help design and craft realistic skin, tongue and mouth areas.
. . .
Showa Hanako 2 has several major upgrades over her predecessor, Showa Hanko 1, for example, her skin is now made of silicone rather than PVC and she moves much more realistically.
There's more at the link.
A dental robot produced with the help of a sex doll manufacturer??? And it even has a speech function! I only hope they didn't let the sex doll maker program the speech . . . otherwise I can just imagine the dialog!
Peter
I'm not sure I WANT to know the answer... But I can sure as hell guess! LOL
ReplyDeleteSuddenly, the expression
ReplyDelete"dental floss"
takes a whole new dimension...
:-)
There is absolutely no way to comment on this and still be printable.
ReplyDeleteAntibubba
Makes perfect sense to me, as that would be the only market segment doing motivated research in those areas. What, would you prefer they spend 6 million in a research grant at a university that'll take eight years to reproduce products and technologies currently on the market at ten times the cost and half the quality?
ReplyDeleteIf you want a good pressure vessel for a unique application, you check the boilermakers. If you want a realistic, mannequin, you check with the realistic mannequin makers, unless you moral outrage gets in the way of common sense.