"Robot HAL at Akanekai Showa HOSPITAL.http://www.akanekai-showa.com.Rehabilitation Section at the Showa hospital uses these HAL legs to help elderly that have a hard time walking.  These are ACTUALLY in use on a daily basis... outpatients (usually) come in twice a week and have a number of electrodes placed in key areas on their legs and lower torso.  These electrodes monitor minor changes in muscle activity and transfer that information to the robotic joints.  Woman being put into the legs is:.EMOTO (Last Name), Chiyoko (89) : She had a fracture of right and left thighbone.The main woman therapist working with her is TSURUGA (Last Name), Mai (P.T.).All of these robotics folks developing robots for elderly talk about studies showing that more and more elderly are isolated and have no one to relate to... In 2009 it was 19 percent of the elderly population of Japan.  They have a word for it:  ""Kodokushi"" or ""lonely death.""."
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