Abstract
We are aiming to develop elderly-friendly living environment. For this purpose, we developed a symbiotic robot (SR) utilized as the health care system. In order to have the SR act as the interface with residential living space, we realized the housing operations controlled by a user's voice. The SR extracts the user's emotional information from his/her voice which controls the home operation, and changes its own color in accordance with his/her emotion. It can also speak the user's language using a voice-synthesis technology. The SR is also equipped with a biological information monitoring system for the health care of the elderly. This monitoring system performs non-invasive measurement for respiratory rate and heart rate using the low-frequency pressure sensor. This information is sent to the SR for analysis and recorded. According to our test, the result of measurements in respiratory rate and heart rate showed a good correlation with conventional methods, and we proved that it can be utilized as an index for physiological function. In addition, the ear canal pressure changes obtained from the user's ear plugs that are connected to the low-frequency pressure sensor showed unique changes. This ear canal pressure changes are found to be possible to reflect changes in jugular vein pressure or right heart hemodynamics. These data were expected to provide an important physiological evidence for the cardiac disease. This monitoring system can be applied to a practical use as a device for non-invasive diagnosis of right heart function.
