AWFUL day at the office? Loosen your tie, slide on your slippers and sink into the arms of the Interactive Virtual Relaxation Massager. As robotic 鈥渇ingers鈥� in the chair back knead and tap away at your muscles, the electronic masseur keeps track of your heart rate and fills your senses with pleasing images and soft, New Age music.
Developed by Panasonic, the virtual massager is a refinement of a massaging chair which currently sells for $4000. Equipment in the back of the chair duplicates a full shiatsu massage. The virtual massager, however, provides much more than this. In the first phase, a gentle massage begins and a soft voice urges you to relax as you view two-dimensional images of trees, snow and streams through goggles. A sensor attached to the goggles monitors your pulse. When your heart rate has fallen enough, the 鈥渟leep鈥� phase begins and the music, massage and graphics fade away
Seven minutes later, you enter the 鈥渞efresh鈥� phase. The chair back taps and kneads you with increasing vigour, the music grows lively and the graphics switch to vibrant three-dimensional images. The chair commands you to stretch and refresh yourself, then presents you with a graph that plots your 鈥渞elaxation level鈥� throughout the 15-minute session.
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The virtual massage lounger has just completed a demonstration tour of the US and will be on sale in Japan by early next year. The price, according to Panasonic spokeswoman Judy Bernstein, has yet to be fixed. 鈥淏ut it is not going to be for the thin of wallet.鈥�