A cute invention was revealed this month at the International Robot Exhibition (IREX) in Tokyo. It's called Jukusui-Kun ("deep sleep" in Japanese) ---a robotic pillow in the shape of a polar bear. The pillow is in fact a serious technological innovation hidden under a cute cover. It was developed by a group of scientists and engineers at Tokyo's Waseda University to help people suffering from snoring   and those who live with them. This is how the robotic pillow works: a microphone detects the noise level of the snoring, and if the snoring becomes very loud, which can be the sign of sleep apnea  , the bear will raise its hand and carefully touch the face of the sleeper, leading to a change in the sleeper's position without waking him or her up. This is definitely the world's first anti-snoring machine and an important potential treatment for sleep apnea. This sleeping disorder involves pauses in breathing, and can lead to heart attacks during sleep. In Japan, around 2 million people are struggling with the problem. When a sleeper starts snoring, the sleeper's blood oxygen level drops. The new device tracks   the level of oxygen in the sleeper's blood and wirelessly sends the information to the polar bear. But the only problem is that people not only have to sleep on a bear-shaped pillow with robotic hands, but also have to insert  their hands into a monitor that keeps track of blood oxygen levels. If these levels fall below a certain point, it gives the bear another cue   to lift its hand. The bear is not yet on sale, and it remains to be seen whether a robotic hand reaching up to touch one's face is any more effective than one's partner giving one a good shove  . We would find the passage in the   _   section of a magazine.
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