Hi Guys and welcome, I am Philip English from Robophil.com, now on this video, we managed to catchup up with Takanori Shibata the inventor of the PARO Therapeutic Seal!  We managed to speak to Takanori at the Innorobo 2015 Robot Exhibition in France, Lyon. 

Paro the seal Robot is a neurological therapeutic medical device approved by FDA as a non-pharmacological therapy.  Takanori takes us through the new features of the version 9 of the PARO seal

Philip: Right! Hi guys! Philip English. So we are here with the Paro and obviously we are here with Takanori as well. Can you please quickly introduce yourself?

Takanori: I’m Takanori Shibata. I am Chief Engineer Research Scientist at the National Institute of Advance Industrial Science and Techonology in Japan.  in 2009, but now we introduce the new version in 2014, last year. So there is no difference in the appearance,

Philip: Yeah! He looks the same. He looks the same.

Takanori: Yeah! But in the inside, Paro has a lot of improvement. The, for example, its weight is lighter than before, now it’s 2.5 Kg and as for the battery, now the battery lasts about 5 to 8 hours and it is used to be 1.5 hours

Philip: It’s really good.

Takanori: So much longer now. And for the fur, it has strong anti-bacterial, anti-bacterial material, so if Paro get some virus or a bacteria, the fur itself can kill them, it’s very safe.

Philip: I supposed this is it. I mean, if the Paro is going to go in the hospitals or in a care home then he fully need that extra anti-bacterial obviously to protect the patient and to protect the Paro at the same time.

Takanori: Yeah! Of course, we have to clean the Paro’s fur but still it’s very safe. And then also, so inside Paro has stronger structure, so even if we drop Paro, Paro will not break, broken and also some other constellations.

Philip: Okay. Now this is the thing, it basically got a better fur, got longer battery, got stronger joints and more improved structure, so I supposed perfect really an over all large improvements so people in hospitals, people in care homes can used the Paro for longer, use it for safer, someone drops it you don’t have to worry about it so much, yeah, I mean it’s brilliant, it’s brilliant as always. So, okay, now, if you got anything to say or?

Takanori: So, I think more and more facilities or individuals they can easily use Paro with the, say, with confidence, and say, trust. Trust.

Philip: Okay. That’s brilliant! Thank you very much for the overview of new Paro. Thank you!

Takanori: Thank you very much!

Brilliant Thanks Guys, I hope you enjoyed the interview and I want to say a big thank you to Takanori from AIST for his time and the interview.

If you want to learn more about the PARO Robot, I have put links below.

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Interview with Takanori Shibata YouTube: https://youtu.be/KhyCbtqnEYI

Philip English: https://philipenglish.com

Sponsor: Robot Center: http://www.robotcenter.co.uk