Robotic seals comfort tsunami survivors

Two small white robotic seals are being used to comfort elderly victims of Japan's tsunami and earthquake. The robotics division of Japanese company Daiwa House has lent a Japanese retirement home two of its seal robots, nicknamed Love and Peace, for two years.



With many still dealing with memories of the quake, the furry friends are now treated as pets by the residents of Suisyoen, which is located 17 miles from Fukushima in the middle of Japan's triple crisis zone.

While some retirement homes have used animals to help with therapy for residents, Suisyoen's General Manager Taku Katoono said that using this sort of therapeutic robot lowered many of the barriers that would normally be in the way of using live animals.


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"First of all it's necessary to have a live animal to raise for animal therapy. That however is rather difficult in certain situations and so in this case we use a doll, albeit a robotic one, as an alternative method to help them recover," Katoono said.