| Robotic massage chairs seem to entering the realms | | | | are preset or manual - I don't remember which one as |
| of science-fiction; they look like they belong on the | | | | I was to busy trying to stay composed in the vice like |
| bridge of the starship Enterprise, come with technical | | | | grip of the chair, a composure that was sorely tested |
| gadgets you need a PhD to even begin to use and | | | | as the chair began to recline. |
| just look darn scary to me. The Inada RoboChair | | | | The massage I received was very robust; not an inch |
| massage recliner is probably the meanest, scariest | | | | of the length of my body was spared. I was told this |
| mother of them all - a machine that is only for the | | | | was thanks to the Full Contact armrest, Full Contact |
| bravest or foolhardy of souls. | | | | footrest and Full Contact back. |
| But in all seriousness, the Inada RoboChair is one | | | | Anyhow, just after promising myself that I would never, |
| serious chair and is perhaps the most technically | | | | ever sit in a robotic massage chair again, I was told |
| advanced on the market place. This isn't surprising as | | | | about its voice activated control system. It's what? I |
| Inada are the accepted leaders and just about every | | | | said. I was then shown the microphone that is |
| new advance in this industry came from its laboratory | | | | positioned to one side of the headrest; I'd seen the |
| is Osaka, Japan. The history of the robotic massage | | | | device earlier but I was too afraid to ask what it was. |
| chair is the history of Inada - or should that be the | | | | The person demonstrating the chair positioned the |
| other way round? | | | | microphone in place - my arms were still locked down |
| I wasn't kidding when I said the chair scared me. The | | | | - and began to explain to me how it worked. |
| footrests, arm cuffs and control panel make the chair | | | | The voice activation system allows you to change |
| look as though it was solely constructed as a torture | | | | various things like the recline angle and roller programs, |
| device, but maybe that's what massage is anyway? | | | | and activation of the kneading and tapping programs |
| When you first sit in the chair you start to feel | | | | by simple word commands. Incredible! Suddenly, I was |
| powerless as your legs and arms are locked down. A | | | | the one in charge. The RoboChair wasn't a menacing |
| feeling of panic sets in as the chair stirs to life, scanning | | | | Rottweiler after all, but a little, fawning lapdog, who |
| your body with optical sensors. It really does this | | | | obediently obeyed my every command. |
| before each massage; the infrared sensors determine | | | | I thoroughly enjoyed playing about with the voice |
| your acupressure points along the length of your back | | | | control and forgot all about my earlier trepidations, so |
| and then compare your profile to 100 stored profiles. | | | | much so that I thought I would like to buy the Inada |
| The chair matches your profile to the 'best-fit' stored | | | | massage chair. I was then told its price tag of $7,500. |
| profile to provide you with a totally customized | | | | Gosh. Its price was the scariest thing about the |
| massage. Apparently in order for any chair to be a | | | | RoboChair. I made good my escape. |
| true shiatsu massage chair it should be able to detect | | | | Follow the links for the Inada massage chair or another |
| body shape and find your acupressure points and | | | | robotic massage chair like the OSIM shiatsu massage |
| automatically adjust the rollers. | | | | chair. |
| The chair then goes into one of its many routines that | | | | |