Robot nurse escorts and schmooze the elderly

U0205353 Chung Chan Lee A robot that does more than clean the carpet Robot nurse escorts and schmooze the elderly Manager of Intel's Proactive Health Research lab, Eric Dishman foresees that countries around the globe will soon face the problems associated with a cresting age wave. “Starting at the end of this decade, the first wave of baby boomers will retire and the population of eldery people will swell” he says. Together with Pollack, and researchers from four schools: the University of Michigan, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, and Stanford, the nursebot project has been started to test out a range of ideas for assisting elderly people, such as reminding elderly patients to visit the bathroom, take medicine, drink, or see the doctor; connecting patients with caregivers through the Internet; collecting data and monitoring the well-being of patients; manipulating objects around the home such as the refrigerator, washing machine, or microwave; taking over certain social functions with elderies

The robot Pearl is a typical prototype of the nursebot project. Pearl deals with old men and old women. Her job is mainly about reminding her clients to eat, drink, take medicine or use the bathroom, she also guides the old folks from room to room as she chats about the weather or TV listings. Pearl is a self-directed mobile robot with an advanced artificial intelligence to assist people with the activities of daily living. This summer, this 4-and-a-half-foot-tall robot nurse is underway her field testing at Longwood Retirement Community in Oakmont, Pa., and She has won the hearts of elderly folks there. “We’re getting along beautifully,” says one older gentleman as Pearl leads him to a room for his therapy session at Longwood. “But, I won’t say whether she’s my kind of girl,” he quips.

Pearl manage to perform some simple face expression, tough still a little bit funny. Pearl's designers say that they took special care to make Pearl prettier, but it's what's inside Pearl counts: Two Intel® Pentium® 4 processor-based PCs run software to endow her with wit and ability to navigate; a differential drive system propels her; Wi-Fi helps her communicate as she rolls along; laser range finders, stereo camera systems, and sonar sensors guide her around obstructions; microphones help her recognize words; speakers enable others to hear her synthesized speech; an actuated head unit swivels in lifelike animation. All this and more is housed in her slender frame.

Reference: http://www.intel.com/employee/retiree/circuit/robot.htm