How Telepresence Robots Are Combating the Debilitating Effects of Isolation and Loneliness (bbc.com)

Internet-connected robots that can stream audio and video are increasingly helping housebound sick children and elderly people keep in touch with teachers, family and friends, combating the scourge of isolation and loneliness. BBC: Zoe Johnson, 16, hasn't been to school since she was 12. She went to the doctor in 2014 "with a bit of a sore throat", and "somehow that became A&E [accident and emergency]," says her mother, Rachel Johnson. The doctors diagnosed myalgic encephalomyelitis, ME for short, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - a debilitating illness affecting the nervous and immune systems. Zoe missed a lot of school but was able to continue with her studies with the help of an online tutor. But "over the years her real-world friendships disappeared because she's not well enough to see anybody," says Ms Johnson. For the last three months, though, she has been taking classes alongside her former classmates using a "telepresence" robot called AV1. The small, cute-looking robot, made by Oslo-based start-up No Isolation, sits in the classroom and live streams video and audio back to Zoe's tablet or smartphone at home. She can speak through the robot and take part in lessons, also controlling where AV1 is looking.

Comments

Good hygiene.

[PopeRatzo]

Are these telepresence robots washable? Asking for a friend.

Re:Good hygiene.

[techno-vampire]

Why? Does your friend have an inflatable telepresence robot?

Re:Good hygiene.

[iggymanz]

most are just cameras on wheels and lack limbs with degrees of freedom, so they're ill suited for either cooking or being a sexbot. Get a woman, they can even wash themselves too.

Re:Good hygiene.

[PopeRatzo]

Get a woman, they can even wash themselves too.

Not the ones I like.

Re:Good hygiene.

[fibonacci8]

Of the possibilities, the first non-criminal option is to assume you have a thing for quadriplegics.

Re:Good hygiene.

[iggymanz]

he just likes them smelly and unbathed, basically we're talking french and certain former soviet country women here.

Re:Good hygiene.

[Anonymous Coward]

most are just cameras on wheels and lack limbs with degrees of freedom, so they're ill suited for either cooking or being a sexbot. Get a woman, they can even wash themselves too.

well.. it must have a USB port? Shelbot likely did!? Asking for a friend ;-P

Re:Heresy

[Anonymous Coward]

fuck off ivan

Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem in many, many cases is that people, especially elderly, don't fucking HAVE living family or friends, and don't go to school.

Older people's family members and friends are often all dead. They often have no viable transportation options in many areas of the US as well with no resources to move to somewhere better, or at least no transportation options that are affordable on Social Security benefits that are far below the poverty level and eaten up by medical insurance co-pays, out-of-pocket costs, deductibles, etc etc.

This is simply a bunch of self-serving assholes trying to monetize people's suffering. Fuck them!

Re: Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, what we should do is take all the old people and harvest them for vital materials and nutrients.

Re: Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Obamacare death panels are the way to go.

Re: Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

That is a beautiful solution. Survival of the fittest. It is also the primary evolutionary reason that the new young hip generation always hates the old gay racist generation the preceded them.

We need to require that the new generation eat the previous generation as soon they can no longer fend for themselves. Plus it will mean the young hip generation will get to keep all the cool toys the weak feeble generation spent all iti's life working for. As it is life savings just get transferred to the medical establishment for end of life care.

What would you rather have happen? Would you rather have your daughter eat you as soon as you could no longer put up a fight, or would you rather spend you dying days living alone, universally despised, and being taken advantage of by a medical establishment run by lawyers and international business conglomerates.

To me being eaten is a much better alternative. Let's keep it in the family. Freedom means being allowed to kill people when they become old and feeble. Let make the USA free again. Legalize Murder!!! Darwin Rules!

Re: Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

There is another option...

  You take care of your elderly yourself, as they age, rather then sending them off to be some stranger's problem who barely makes enough wage to feel motivated to get up in the morning and go to work.

It is not easy though, one has to actually exert energy and work to take care of an elderly parent or relative.

Why?

[TimMD909]

We have billions of people on this earth. You can't tell me the best idea we have is use robots and shit. There's literally more people than ever. I don't remember history books talking about how lonely people were as some terrible thing only eclipsed by famine or war. Where did we go wrong?

Re:Why?

[liquid_schwartz]

Where did we go wrong?

TV, the internet, people moving far away from parents and extended family. Even athiests can see the importance of religion as a social institution. One of my biggest complaints about the left is that they destroy, as they detest the existing and traditional, but never create when it comes to good things. And I don't mean technology and technology as that is more politically neutral. Take the boy scouts as an example. Great institution that was decimated due to being caught up in the culture wars and political correctness. Is there a comparable replacement? Of course not. Or holidays at school. There was a time kids could dress up and enjoy Halloween or have a Christmas program. Both gone and replaced by boys wearing dresses and school shootings. The past wasn't all good but the baby definitely got thrown out with the bath water.

Re: Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

"billions of people..."
"Where did we go wrong?"

Oh gee I wonder.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

god damn you are retarded

Re: Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Families used to stay together, and the grandma or grandpa would wile away the days in a rocking chair. Now that we have a social security system to take care of old people we spend thousands of dollars a month to send old people to institution where minimum wage care givers look after your parents.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a robot to help people connect. Its easy to say there must be a better way, but I don't see you suggesting one.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

School shootings are good. They help culling the herd.

It's Insane to Think Your Computer Cares for You

[BrendaEM]

If you have even a bad moment with a person, at least you know that that interaction was real.

Re:It's Insane to Think Your Computer Cares for Yo

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok. What point are you trying to make in reference to this article? Are you saying you think that these telepresence robots are a good thing?

Interaction

[Anonymous Coward]

Even a simpler device can help sometimes. Heck, possibly a Tamagotchi saved my life back in high school days.