what's next; such a comfort to grandma, and it runs on double-a's - overhead projector camera

In 2002, when Tang Tony of the television Soprano family placed his increasingly forgetful mother in a nursing home, she was very angry and tried to get him to die.
Maybe he should consider having a robot with her in her own home.
The researchers are indeed trying to explore the use of robots as assistants to older people who want to stay at home.
In a collaborative project supported by the National Science Foundation between Purdue University and the University of Washington, researchers are investigating the psychological impact of robotic dogs on the lives of older adults.
"We know health and emotions --
When the elderly are in contact with animals, their lives are improved. Alan M.
Baker is the lead researcher for the project and also a professor at Purdue University's veterinary college.
"We want to see what happens when animals are robots.
"In a pilot study, Dr. Beck and Dr. Nancy E.
Edwards, an assistant professor of nursing who specializes in gerontology, observed and interviewed healthy seniors while interacting with a robotic dog.
Advertisers quickly project emotions onto robots. Edwards said.
"Look, he likes me," a typical comment when the robot approaches.
The advertisement projects the emotion onto the robot dog.
Edwards observed.
"At the beginning, we asked, 'What does a robot dog need to survive? '
People answered, 'battery,' she said '.
But after about a week, the answer becomes "it needs someone to talk to" and "it needs someone to pay attention to it ".
"The next step for researchers is to give the elderly a robot dog for 6 weeks to see how the relationship has developed. Dr.
The emotional connection between humans and pets may be therapeutic and can ease loneliness and depression, Baker said.
"At first, I was worried that we would replace humans --
Combined with robot animals
He added that such an alternative could be an example of technology weakening important natural relationships.
But despite this concern
Baker soon realized a robot.
There is an advantage in the human Union.
For example, older people may not be suitable for walking with real dogs or may forget the feeding time.
"With Robots, they may get a sense of companionship without the risk of harming the creature," he said . ".
Speaking to robot dogs can be a bit like talking to babies, allowing people to enjoy some nurturing behavior, he said.
Other studies sponsored by the National Science Foundation are designed to test prototypes of humanoid robots that may one day help the elderly at home, remind them of the necessary tasks, or play card games with them.
Robot assistants created by researchers at Carnegie Mellon and other universities are equipped with a speech synthesizer to answer questions such as "Have you ever taken aspirin ? " Problems like that.
And speech recognition software to understand the reply.
As a backup, the robot nicknamed Pearl installed a computer monitor on the chest to show what it was saying.
Please click on the box to verify that you are not a robot.
The email address is invalid. Please re-enter.
You must select the newsletter you want to subscribe.
View all New York Times newsletters. Dr.
Human professor Sarah Kessler
Computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University in Pearl Research wants to design service robots that are both polite and efficient.
"We don't want to make robots to deal with the worse aspects of stiff nurses," she said . ".
"We want to make sure people don't get convinced by their robots.
"Irobot is a robot manufacturing company based in Somerset, Massachusetts.
Colin Angel, chief executive of the company, said he was not worried about the products of the robot charm school.
At iRobot, he said, all the conversation was done by humans.
The company built a robot.
Hope to find use in the elderly one day.
The bulky red machine looks like a projector mounted on six wheels with a web server and a camera.
The camera can zoom in on its environment, perhaps including the old man sitting in the living room.
Any authorized person who logs into the server can activate the robot and its camera--
For example, children living far away from their parents.
"You can see what the robot sees and hear what the robot hears because the robot has a wireless audio and video connection to the internet cable modem ,"Angle said.
The robot delivers real
Compressed video at about 5 to 10 frames per second.
Once the images reach the monitor of the distant audience, these viewers can click on any part of the image they want the robot to be close.
At Click, the robot begins to use sound waves and infrared sensors to move to the destination at 4 inch per second to avoid obstacles.
In this way, the viewer can drive the robot, for example, to make it closer to the person sitting on the sofa.
At present, this is called Co-
Workers, sell at high prices
Sir, wireless video conferencing and related use is over and needs to be adapted to work with older peopleAngle said.
Apps may include remote monitoring of vital signs, as well as virtual access to home and health
Professional nursing staff
Will the elderly accept the existence of such robots in their lives?
"People, even the people who hate technology the most, may be willing to live with robots if that means they can stay at home," he said . ". Dr.
Michael Lesk, an official at the National Science Foundation, who oversees some of the agency's research into home robots, said that in some ways progress in this field is more dependent on people than robots.
"Robots have the potential to become companions or pets for the elderly," he said . ".
"We don't know what people are willing to give to the machine yet.
"We are constantly improving the quality of text archives.
Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to archid_feedback @ nytimes. com.
A version of this article was printed on April 18, 2002 and on the national G00007 page, the title is: what is the next step;
This is a comfort for Grandma, it runs in doubleA's.