Pearl, a Robot for the Elderly

Roland Piquepaille writes "The world population is rapidly aging -- at least in developed countries. The number of seniors will explode in the next two decades. So researchers everywhere are trying to find new ways to help elderly people to continue to live at home. This is why a team from Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, University of Michigan and Stanford University has spent the last four years to design Pearl, a robot specifically designed to help old people. Pearl has a humanoid aspect and is 4-feet high. Still, don't rush to the store to buy one for your old folks. It costs more than $100,000 and is not entirely ready for mass production. This overview contains more details and references. It also includes two pictures of the -- quite cute -- Pearl."

Comments

Re:What kind of logic is this?!

[MrIrwin]

" in the first world"

Duh,...I meant to write developed, not developing.

As for old folks homes, I think the problem is thicker. In countries with "extended" family homes you have an environment with lots of people coming and going all day. In developed countries the suburban household of a nuclear family is unoccupied for large parts of the day. Old folks home make sense **if** they are well run and integrated into the community where family, grandchildren etc. live.

Unneeded solution to an avoidable problem

[deacon]

The main reason "old" people have problems with strength and mobility are that they spent a lot of their younger lives sitting on the lazy-boy with a scotch and a cigarette, watching Johnny Carson before he became Jay Leno.

When they did go out, it was in a Cadillac to go to a steakhouse and consume 1.5 Kg of beef and 3 scotches.

The windows in the Cadillac were electric, so that the owners did not even get the exercise available by rolling them up.

Now, you can get away with the beef and the scotch, but when you combine that with a sedentary lifestyle, you will not have enough strength to move around when you are 65.

In developing countries, of course, people are still outside with a plow behind a pair of horses planting potatoes, and tend to be physically vigorous till they fall dead of a stroke, or die in their sleep due to heart stoppage.

The obvious point of all this is that if you stop using your body to it's full potential, you will soon lose the ability to get your ass off the toilet and wipe it.

I think humans are the only animal that does not run or exercise for the sheer fun of it: Horses run, Dogs run, dolphins swim, hell, even sloths hold on to trees with their tails.. But humans are sitting in front of the TV with a scotch.

The result is intuitively predictable by inspection :)