By 2050, the over 65s in Japan could make up a third of the population and technology will play a big role to help combat loneliness.

Originally designed five years ago to be a substitute boyfriend for young single girls in the workforce, Primo Puel “My Special Partner” has become an unexpected hit with elderly people across Japan. The interactive doll talks, giggles and even asks for cuddles, providing a widow with much of the company she longs for, especially in the evening.

The idea for alternatives to human companionship has been bubbling away in laboratories for longer.

The National Institute of Advanced Science has created Paro a robot seal, specifically for lonely people. Based on the properties of animal therapy, Paro has been designed to provide relaxation, entertainment and companionship through physical interaction.

On the security side, seniors can also benefit from computer systems that constantly monitors their physical state, records their movements around the house, building up a pattern of her daily routine.

This information is fed to a central computer that collates and analyses the data it receives. If it detects anything unusual in the patient’s routine, someone will call the person or a relative to find out what is wrong.

Via BBC News.
See also the health benefits of robot toys and the doll that feels sorry for workaholics.

A few years ago, Noam Toran designed eigth Accessories for Lonely Men that recreate some of the nice and bad things of a relationship.

During the night, the Sheet Stealer winds the bedclothes up into a tube attached to the side of the bed. Once woken by the cold, the sleeper can pull the sheet out again and reclaim it for himself.

Once placed on the body, the steel finger of the Chest ­Hair Curler rotates gently, playing with his chest hair, while Shared Cigarette is intended to be used after a solitary sex act: it has two holes, one for cigarette, and the other for exhaling smoke.

The rapid-fire Plate Thrower, on the other hand, is to be used in moments of high passion. The collection also includes a pair of cold feet like objects to place in the bed, an alarm clock that wakes you up by flicking a strand of hair across your face, and a device that expels breath-like bursts of warm air, to be placed on the pillow (picture above).

Image. More in Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects, by Raby and Dunne.