"No blood pressure issues, no temperature issues, no weight issues. Ideally, You would lose another 1.5kg."
"You're so persistent, Rock."
It's been about a year since I started participating in the clinical trial, and I've gotten used to living with the clinical trial support robot, Rock, by videoing my doctor's examinations and taking my medication every day. This morning, after a series of exchanges with Rock, I was getting ready to go to school when I received an email from the clinical trial office.
Notice from the clinical trial office
Starting tomorrow at 3:00am, we will be updating the system for the clinical trial support robot.
The work will take about 30 minutes, so it will not affect data collection the next morning.
What will be updated this time:
Please contact us if you have any questions.
Magoneko Health Science Co., Ltd. Clinical Trial Support Center
Contact: XXX
I get this kind of email about once a month, but I don't have to do anything about it, so I've never paid much attention to it. It seems that various problems will be fixed this time as well, although I don't know the details. It's like an iPhone, where the functions are constantly being improved without my knowledge.
"Amazing, Rock"
When I woke up the next morning and looked at Rock, the flower mark on his abdomen was flashing red.
"Are you OK, Rock?"
There was no reply from Rock.
Ugh, I have a lot of things to do with Rock when I wake up in the morning, but I can't do them like this.
"Mom, something is wrong with Rock."
"Oh my, the flower is turned red. The manual says that in this case, press the reset button to restart the robot."
"You're a great mom, people of my generation don't read manuals."
I immediately opened the cover on Rock's back and pressed the reset button inside.
Rock's eyes lit up, and the flower mark on his abdomen started flashing. The red flashing changed to yellow flashing.
"Firmware update failed."
"Started in recovery mode."
It seems there was a problem with last night's update.
Rock's eyes went out for a moment, then lit up again, and the flower mark on his abdomen started flashing.
"Internet connection completed"
"Firmware update completed successfully"
"System reboot"
The Rock's eyes lit up again, and the flower mark on its abdomen flashed red, yellow, and blue before disappearing.
"Good morning, Sakura."
"Yay, Rock is back."
"Sakura, it's past time to measure your weight and blood pressure. Hurry, hurry."
"What are you talking about? You must have broken it so we couldn't measure them."
"I wasn't broken. There's no problem. Sakura, measure them quickly."
"Okay. I'll measure them now, so wait a moment."
When I got home from school in the evening, I had an email from the clinical trial support center.
Dear Ms. Sakura Yaeno,
We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the system problem.
After analyzing the startup log sent from the robot, we found that the voltage inside the robot dropped during the firmware update, causing the update to terminate abnormally, which caused problems with operation today. We are not sure what caused the voltage drop, but the robot has been operating normally since then.
In addition, the automatic repair function was activated by resetting the system, and the repair process was performed, so the problem has now been resolved. Thank you for your assistance.
Please contact us anytime if you need anything.
Magoneko Health Science Co., Ltd. Clinical Trial Support Center
Contact: XXX
The problem seems to have been repaired automatically. Rock doesn't seem to realize that he was broken though. Oh well.
The next morning, when I woke up, the flower mark on Rock's abdomen was flashing yellow. Moreover, it was a pattern I'd never seen before, with the four petals turning on and off in a clockwise direction, one by one, and then turning on and off repeatedly.
"Rock, what's wrong this time?"
"A problem has occurred with the main memory."
"What? Another problem?"
"I've already notified the clinical trial center about the problem. You can't use the video chat system until the problem is fixed."
"Oh no, this is a big problem because tomorrow is my monthly video consultation with the investigator in Osaka."
"I've already notified the clinical trial center about the problem. The replacement memory will be arrived today."
"Today, you say? This is a remote island, so that wouldn't be possible!"
"I've already notified the clinical trial center about the problem. The parts will be arrived today."
For the time being, I decided to go to school, since my weight, blood pressure, and temperature were all measured without any problems. When I got home from school, a small cardboard box had arrived from the support center. Rock was next to me, but the flower mark on his abdomen was still flashing.
"Mom, what's this?"
"Oh, Sakura, welcome back. A drone just flew over, delivered this, and then left."
"What? A drone? That helicopter-like thing?"
"Yes, that's it. I've never seen one before, but I guess we're in an era where things like that come to deliver packages."
"Sakura, the parts have arrived. Fix myself."
"Okay, okay. Just wait a moment."
When I opened the cardboard box, a part about the size of a karaoke membership card came out.
"Part of the main memory has been detached dynamically. Eject the memory in slot B."
"Sakura, open my back."
Rock is as impatient as ever. When I opened the cover on the back of Rock, the same parts that was sent to me was peeking out from the square recess.
"Sakura, replace the part marked B with a new part. Don't touch A."
I pulled out the part marked B from the back of Rock and inserted the new part sent by drone. The new part seemed to fit neatly into the back of Rock.
"Check complete. No abnormalities in slot A or slot B."
"System recovery complete. Full functionality restored."
In the meantime, I received an email from the support center.
Dear Ms. Sakura Yaeno,
We apologize for the repeated malfunctions.
Today, we detected a hardware abnormality in the robot, so we sent you a replacement part. We are glad that you were able to replace it without any problems. This time, part of the main memory broke, making some functions that require large amounts of memory unusable. In the future, we will make further improvements to further reduce the occurrence of such problems. Thank you for your continued support with regards to clinical trials.
If you need anything, please contact us at any time.
Magoneko Health Science Co., Ltd. Clinical Trial Support Center
Contact: XXX
I was a bit surprised that the problem continued to occur, but I'm glad the Rock has been fixed. I think I'll be able to see the doctor tomorrow without any problems, so I'm relieved now.