The sweet-looking toy is widely used in hospitals and old people’s homes as a therapeutic tool to improve the quality of life of dementia sufferers.
Designed in Japan, it uses Artificial Intelligence to stimulate memories and improve the quality of life of patients who have lost their mental ability. The first seal in Portugal is to go to the Casa da Saúde da Idanha home in Belas, Sintra.
The baby seal, named Paro, moves and responds to sound or touch.
It has also been found to improve “depression, anxiety, pain, stress, loneliness, and sleep disturbances”, according to its creator, Takanori Shibata.
“Paro can adapt to users and behave as they would like. It has a limited number of functions but people associate interacting with it to interacting with a cat or dog they may have had in the past, or to the experience of taking care of a child”, Shibata explained.
The inventor added, petting the robot in therapeutic sessions can reduce behavioural or psychological problems “such as aggression or agitation”, which are rooted in such things as “pain or anxiety.
Takanori Shibata explained that using this technology allows “the reduction of social costs” and improves quality of life, and said he hopes that “in the future, Portugal will adopt Paro in its social security system”.
In countries like the United Kingdom, the robot has been used experimentally in some National Health Service units.