Take a seat if you feel in need of a hug ...
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THERE are times in everyone’s life when only a hug will do. Now a Japanese company has come up with a chair that’s always ready with a comforting cuddle.
The “tranquility chair” is built in the shape of a larger-than-life fabric doll with a friendly face and a fetching hat, but more importantly, it has long arms that can wrap around the user in an affectionate embrace.
“It makes you feel safe. Anyone can use it, but it is designed for older people,” said a spokesman for UniCare, which is selling the chair, at the International Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition in Tokyo.
It costs 46,000 yen (US$419) and there’s a version adapted for wheelchair users.
Alongside specialist vehicles, beds and toilets on display at the three-day show were a variety of unusual products designed to lift the spirits of older people, who increasingly live on their own.
Also on display were baby seal robots known as “Paro” that have been making a splash in therapeutic treatment since 2004.
The cute animatronic devices, developed by Japanese automation pioneer AIST, allow people who are not allowed live pets because of apartment rules to enjoy the soothing company of a robotic creature that they can care for as if it was real.
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