As baby boomers become senior citizens and health care costs continue to escalate, assistive technologies that enable greater self regulation are likely to become more prevalent.
Pearl, is capable of various caregiver tasks, such as escorting an elderly person to an appointment or reminding her of her daily schedule. Pearl is intended to assist caregivers not replace them. By taking on more mundane responsibilities of the caregiver and health professionals, those individuals have more time to focus on the tasks that require their high-level of training.
Visitors to the demo will be able to interact with Pearl to see how users will benefit.
Said Pollack about the demonstration, "Pearl will 'observe' where the participant goes--either to a simulated kitchen on one side of the booth or a simulated bathroom (for taking medicine) on the other--and provide reminders accordingly."
Pollack's recent research has focused on exploring non-robotic methods of deployment for places, people and situations in which a robot is not needed. For example, she is adapting the technology used in Pearl to provide timely reminders to Traumatic Brain Injury patients.
A handheld device with similar artificial-intelligence software as in Pearl also will be available for interactive demonstration. "The reminders will be posted both on the handheld device that the participant is using, as well as on the body of the robot for other participants to observe," added Pollack. The soft
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Contact: Byron Roberts
byronr@umich.edu
734-647-7086
University of Michigan College of Engineering
15-Mar-2004