Week 8-
How a robot could be grandma’s new carer
MiRo is a robotic dog. There is an early model close to where we are sitting. Its head sits above a torso without arms or legs, and its cartoonish eyes stare out below alert ears embedded with speakers.
Conran’s company describes it as a biomimetic companion robot, and says it will eventually work with facial recognition technology to make life easier for its owner – to prompt them to take medicine, or to remind them of visitors’ names, or to question them if it thinks they’re in trouble.
Conran tells me to think of it as a cross between a pet and Radio 4’s John Humphrys. Dr Toshiharu Mukai of Meijo University has been developing a robot capable of lifting patients out of beds and into wheelchairs. It’s called Robear, is designed to look like an approachable white bear, and could, if successful, do a job that would normally involve several care workers.
In Grantham, a prototype care robot was recently introduced to a sheltered housing centre. Part of an EU-funded project dedicated to investigating the ways technology can improve the day-to-day lives of elderly people, the robot is designed in part to – much like Conran’s MiRo – combat loneliness, and to offer reminders for tasks such as taking medicine.
Fears grow for children addicted to online games
Medical and addiction experts, charities and parents are becoming increasingly concerned about the amount of time children are spending playing online games as figures show that UK spending on titles such as League of Legends, World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto will top £3bn this year.
Dr Aric Sigman, a freelance lecturer in child health, said he had heard from a number of doctor’s surgeries that parents were asking for sleeping pills for their children. “Whether you call it an addiction or not, this is an enormous and growing problem,” he said.
The charity Action for Children says that a quarter of parents rank their children’s screen time, and how to control it, as their greatest challenge – bigger than the traditional issues of homework or healthy eating.
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