Centuries after Shakespeare wrote about King Lear’s symptoms, there’s still no perfect way to care for sufferers of dementia and Alzheimer’s. In the Netherlands, however, a radical idea is being tested: Self-contained "villages" where people with dementia shop, cook, and live together—safely.
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Toyota has developed the Partner Robot, to provide everyday assistance for people with disabilities. This robot has a compact, cylindrical body, so it can turn round in small spaces, as well as folding arms, which can do tasks such as fetching objects and opening curtains.
The robot is controlled easily, by using the touch interface on a smartphone or speech recognition. It can also be controlled remotely by a caregiver, while communicating with the user.
“For robots to operate in …
Toyota has built the Human Support Robot, a 70 pound ‘droid designed to help the elderly and less-able around the home. The tablet-and-voice-controlled unit can open your curtains, fetch items and even pick up after you, thanks to its single telescopic arm that stretches up to 2.5 feet. A tablet slot on top of its head lets you use the hardware as a telepresence device, although we’re more interested in teaching it some attitude so we can live out our “sassy housekeeper” sitcom fantasies in peace.
Filed under: Robots
Toyota builds assistive robot to help the disabled around the home originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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