Now you're talking: human-like robot may one day care for dementia patients

[Buster's Uncle]

Now you're talking: human-like robot may one day care for dementia patients
Reuters
By Paige Lim  8 hours ago



Nadine, a humanoid created by Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) Professor Nadia Thalmann and her team, looks at her laptop next to one of the computer systems running her software at their campus in Singapore March 1, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su



SINGAPORE (Reuters) - With her brown hair, soft skin and expressive face, Nadine is a new brand of human-like robot that could one day, scientists hope, be used as a personal assistant or care provider for the elderly.

The 1.7-metre tall Nadine was created in the likeness of its maker, Nadia Thalmann, a visiting professor and director of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University's Institute of Media Innovation who has spent three decades researching into virtual humans.

Nadine's software allows the robot to express a range of emotions and recall a previous conversation. Nadine is not commercially available, but Thalmann predicted robots could one day be used as companions for people living with dementia.

"If you leave these people alone they will be going down very quickly. So these people need to always be in interaction," Thalmann said, adding Nadine could provide conversation, tell a story or play a simple game.

Thalmann and her team are also working on emotive robots that can play with children. The project is still in the early development stage and no prototype is available yet.

The child robot would be able to respond to questions, display emotions and recognize people. Aside from being a social companion, the child robot could supervise unattended children and inform a parent or nanny if something went wrong, Thalmann said.

There are plans to program the child robot to speak different languages so that it can serve as an educational tool for children, she said.

"A child has toys but they are usually passive. This robot will be an active toy which interacts with the child," said Thalmann. "It will be able to remember what the child likes."

(Editing by Nick Macfie)


http://news.yahoo.com/now-youre-talking-human-robot-may-one-day-105320369.html


When my daddy was a very little boy, he promised Gramma "Ma, when I grow up, I'm gonna get you a job in the shade."  When I was a little boy unaware of that, I was all "Mamma, when I grow up, I'm gonna build you a robot to do all your work."  -Says something about changing times, I guess, but amusing parallel.

Twenty years ago, though, I asked "Mamma, if I ever figure out how to build that robot, can I use it to lose at cards with Grampa and keep him company instead?"  Grampa was senile...

HowEVER; this is a HORRIBLE idea.  Can you IMAGINE how blind/deaf/out of it a senior would have to be to NOT be freaked right the heck out by a companionbot?  That still photo of Nadine creeps ME out a little...

(Of course, when my generation starts going into homes in a big way in about 15-20 years, they'll be able to set us up with Nintendo emulators, which will indeed solve some problems...)

[Unorthodox]

The still looks ok, actually.  Just this side of the valley.  Put it in motion though...

[Buster's Uncle]

Putting it in motion is the idea.  What. are. they. thinking with this thing?

[Rusty Edge]

I speculate that  she has already had to deal with grandma, couldn't stand answering the question and listening to the same stories all of the time, and figures she could build a robot that could pass for a dutiful daughter to her mom when she's senile.

Being able to market this or sustain herself in a university.... icing on the cake.

[Buster's Uncle]

You have to repeat yourself a lot - no doubt of that.

There's an advantage to it, though; I got a Groundhog Day effect with my dad, practicing the same family history to orient him story until it got really good.  You don't get as many of those as you'd hope with dementia -a Belker perp once said on Hill Street Blues "Grandma had the best time on her birthdays.  She'd look away from her presents, forget, look down again and OOH!"  -No, I never saw that one, and Lord knows I had enough chances...

[Valka]

What an obscene concept. We already have too little human interaction in our modern lives. There are days when I think the nurses at the home where my father is are absolute idiots when it comes to communicating with me, but then I'm not the one with dementia. I never did get the chance to actually meet anyone at that facility and get a read on whether or not they'd treat my dad right - but unless they're downright abusive, they're still better than a robot.

[Buster's Uncle]

An attentive friend could have done Grampa all the good in the world.  Even once he was getting bad and it was too late, some reason to stay awake in the daytime would have slowed his decline and kept him with us longer...

[Buster's Uncle]

And there's this:  the imaginary robot I imagined being able to build looked a lot more like Bender than Nadine - mechanical men have been around in fiction since Grampa was very young, and if as easy to operate as those (implausible movie ones) by an entirely non-tech person, would have novelty entertainment value but no creepy, I think/hope.  Just sit at the table and lose at cards and arguments.  Get up and help in emergencies.  The parts of the housework Gramma didn't like (easy to overdo that last - she needed things to do, and she lasted longer than he did because of having some while he was alive).

Rest homes are not very good at that companion part, at all.

[Unorthodox]

Trying to think of the first lifelike android in Fiction...

Anyone got anything before Stepford Wives? 

Which brings up a curious point.  Clearly mechanical androids have often been portrayed as useful servants in fiction. 

Life-like androids, such as the Stepford Wives or Ash from Alien are often seen as villains at worst.  Ticking time bombs (like Blade Runner) at best.  Even those that end up being heroes are distrusted for most of their stories (Bishop/Aliens). 

How much of it is uncanny valley, and how much is the fact we've been conditioned to dislike lifelike robots? 

[Buster's Uncle]

Metropolis (1936) as far as movies go. Maria was played by a human human-looking for most of the film.  She was an evil infiltrator of the workers.

Kapec's RUR earlier, for a book, I think.

I believe you've got cause and effect reversed in that last line.

[Unorthodox]

Actually never seen Metropolis, so only knew of the classic robot screenshots. 

I don't think conditioning is a cause for uncanny valley reactions.  If I'm not mistaken, animals respond with an uncanny valley response as well. 

I'm more trying to find a reason why lifelike robots, even perfect dupes, would be creepy.  Because, let's face it, they are. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Because uncanny valley, but people tell stories with lifelike robots/vampires and such as villains BECAUSE something that can pass as One Of Us or is close but Not Us are innately potentially scary, not we find it scary just because of the movie taught us to fear.

As to why there's an uncanny valley effect pretty deeply hardwired in our brains, I think a lot of time in our ancestral line evolving while competing with other sorts of almost-human hominids for survival...  -Right there's probably behind racism, why religions often hate schismatics and other denominations close to their own beliefs more than completely alien religions, etcetera.  We've a profound fear of otherness in our hearts, otherness close by irrationally often more so than the completely other.

[Unorthodox]

Chicken/egg argument, really. 

I think the fear of something/someone not being what it seems is a learned fear. 

Where the fear of something that is in the valley is more innate.   

[Buster's Uncle]

I dunno; I can't recall anything in my life that would have taught me to fear the Infiltrator.

---

BTW, please scroll to the bottom of the root directory and post something in the Staff Room if you can see it...

[Rusty Edge]

Chicken/egg argument, really. 

I think the fear of something/someone not being what it seems is a learned fear. 

Where the fear of something that is in the valley is more innate.

As Yoda once said "Difficult to see".
I wonder if ants fear those spiders that mimic them and prey upon them. I wonder if wolves fear those Komondor sheep guard dogs which live among the sheep and look like sheep, until it's too late.

I know those sticks which turn into snakes are scarey. Same with clods of dirt which suddenly launch into the air and turn into toads. Logs that become gators are probably scarey, too.

Anything that can disguise itself until you get dangerously close...is probably an AMBUSH PREDATOR! 

I'll go with innate. Snakes creep me out.