- She can remind you to eat breakfast, guide you to the
bathroom and even bat her eyes approvingly while you swallow your medicine.
-
- "Pearl", believed to be the world's first robotic
carer, could be the perfect solution for a population that is facing a
critical shortage of nurses at the same time as the number of its elderly
residents is rising rapidly.
-
- The 125lb intelligent "nursebot" uses sonars
and an internal map to detect and follow her patient. She knows exactly
where they are and what they should be doing at certain times of the day.
-
- Developed by a team of researchers from the universities
of Michigan and Pittsburgh, and the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh,
Pearl could revolutionise the way the elderly are cared for. She has been
programmed with a computer-generated female voice and can use a touch-screen
to communicate reminders and advice.
-
- Martha Pollack, a professor of electrical engineering
at the university of Michigan, said that preliminary testing on Pearl with
residents in a retirement home had been a great success.
-
- "She tries to figure out if the person has done
what she's supposed to do and, if not, remind her to do it," Prof
Pollack said. "Another thing she can do is provide navigational guidance.
When people are a little bit disorientated and they know they need to go
to the cafeteria, but they can't remember how to get to there, she can
guide them."
-
- The prototype of Pearl cost almost $100,000 (£55,000)
to develop but it will be some time before Pearl is mass-produced and put
on sale. The development scientists want to advance her capabilities before
letting her loose on retirement homes and hospitals around the world.
-
- At the moment, the "nursebot" functions on
a battery system that needs to be recharged every couple of hours, and
as she moves about on wheels, stairs are an impossibility.
-
- "I think there's a whole range of things she could
do," said Prof Pollack. "One very important application is monitoring
various aspects of a person's health. She could monitor things like heart
rate, ankle diameter and blood pressure."
-
- Prof Pollack said that despite Pearl's popularity they
did not want her to replace human nurses and carers. "That's not what
we are trying to do. There's human contact there which is just invaluable
but the reality is that there are huge nursing shortages.
-
- "There is an enormous demographic shift that the
whole world is undergoing. The percentage of people over the age of 65
is exploding, we've never seen a demographic shift like this. Pearl could
do some of the basic routines that would enable nurses or caregivers to
have more quality time."
-
- The 2001 Census of Britain revealed that the number of
over-85s has increased fivefold since 1951 and that for the first time
there are more people aged over 60 than under 16.
-
- As well as a full-size "nursebot", Prof Pollack's
team has also developed hand-held and walker devices containing similar
software and could be available within five to eight years.
-
- "There are a number of people who are developing
various kinds of technology to care for the elderly," she said. "Anything
we can do to help people maintain their autonomy a little longer, and still
have a caregiver focus on the important tasks, is going to be essential."
-
- Richard Briers, 70, the actor, was enthusiastic about
the potential for nursebots such as Pearl to help the elderly in the future.
One of the "greatest horrors", he said, "for older people
was loneliness, especially if they had lost their partner".
-
- "When you can't walk any more and you can't see,
it would be a hell of a help. If your partner goes before you and you're
alone, it would be some kind of company when you no longer have the strength
to walk a dog."
-
- Rodney Bickerstaffe, the president of the National Pensioners
Convention, insisted, however, that patients needing carers wanted the
"feel and the smell and the touch of a human being".
-
- "Isn't it a shame that with all the people in the
world we haven't got enough nurses," he said. "It's a bit dehumanising
and I think personal care and human touch is what it's about."
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/21/wnurse21.
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