Charlie Exemplifies What Seniors Think Healthbots Should Be
… except maybe that it doesn’t sport a middle-aged look.
When asked how healthcare robots should look like, majority of residents and staff of Selwyn Retirement Village expressed their preference towards a “middle-age robot” bearing a clear voice and that didn’t have a face.
Residents, their relatives, as well as staff members of Selwyn Retirement Village in Pt Chevalier, Auckland, are participating in a study under a joint research project conducted by the University of Auckland and South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute.
This particular component of the project aims to identify the possible tasks healthcare robots are most suitable for as well as which robots’ appearances are most acceptable to people who will often interact with them.
Charlie, a machine created by South Korea’s Yujin Robot and which almost fits the description given earlier, is being employed to assist in the study. Instead of a face, Charlie has a graphical user interface displayed on a 10.4-inch touch-sensitive screen.
Charlie runs on two operating systems: Linux for its software to hardware communications and Windows for its human to machine communications.
Looking at the image above, regular readers will most likely confuse Charlie with another robot we featured in the past – the InTouch Robot. However, whereas the InTouch Robot focuses on providing advanced communication capabilities (including video) between the doctor and his patients, Charlie can actually perform other tasks such as taking vital signs, reminding patients of their medications, and requesting for assistance.
