Last week I watched the movie Robot & Frank. The movie follows the story of Frank, an aging, slightly-reformed thief who is facing dementia-like symptoms. Divorced with adult children who have busy lives of their own, Frank (portrayed brilliantly and powerfully by actor Frank Langella) fights against being moved to a nursing facility. Though the movie takes place in the not-too-distant future, several significant leaps in technology have been made. One of these leaps involves creating robots who serve as caretakers to the aging. Frank’s son buys him one of these skilled-care robots and so begins Frank’s sweet, bizarre, and tangled friendship with his robot who records Frank’s every move, including his return to crime.
Think it’s far-fetched for robots to play the critical role of senior caretaker? Think again.
Earlier this week, Fast Company ran an article about the NAO humanoid robot. Though invented about 5 years ago, it is now available commercially and helps autistic children in schools. Why has a robot proven effective with autistic children? Interaction with other people is a key challenge for many people, adults and children, who have autism. Because robots have predictable behaviors (after all, we program them and they can only do what we tell them to do) and offer far less stimuli during interactions than humans, people with autism can relate well to them.
The days of personal robots are quickly moving from the dreams of science fiction writers to members of our society. With the collaborative vision and determination of programmers, designers, and product developers, they may well be the critical component to solving some of the greatest social challenges in our society. To take a peek at videos of the NAO humanoid robot at work, click here.
Christa Avampato 