HOW A ROBOT COULD BE GRANDMA'S NEW CAREGIVER
With an ageing population and care costs rising, robots and smart homes may be a solution. But would you want a plastic dog to look after your loved ones?
Sitting in a studio in Kensington, London, the designer Sebastian Conran walks me through a worst-case scenario. "Basically, what it's looking for is a break in routine," he explains, pointing to a drawing of an elderly woman lying on the floor of her home. "There's an event. The e-sensor in the room notices that you've fallen over. MiRo goes to investigate." 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, its ears carry hidden speakers, and its big eyes stare out at me.
Conran's company describes MiRo as a biomimetic companion robot, and says it will eventually work with facial recognition technology to make life easier for its owner. For example, the robot could prompt people to take medicine, or remind them of visitors' names, or question them if it thinks there is a problem. "It tries talking to you," he continues, "and then it will send a signal to the central office. Someone in the central office will then talk on the home speaker, asking if you're all right, and telling you to touch your wrist." Conran points at the wristband the elderly woman in the picture is wearing. It is another key part of his system because it monitors the vital signs of its wearer 24 hours a day. "If you touch your wrist the process will stop but will be recorded," he says. "If you don't touch your wrist it will contact a caregiver, who can see your heart rate and body temperature. The system rewinds the recording using the cameras in the home to see what happened. So when the ambulance gets there, the doctor will know what to expect."
Many of these visions are just emerging, but at a time of rising elderly populations and less government funding for health care, they raise important questions about where we are going with care. Can robots supplement human contact? Do economic realities mean technology is pushing some of society's most vulnerable into the arms of machines?
The technologists insist that their creations are designed to work alongside people, and not to replace them. They say there is a lot of misunderstanding about what robots are and whether they could have human-like qualities and give emotional support. Some technologists are against the idea of robots that resemble humans precisely for this reason. There are things that people are good at, and there are things that machines are good at. Designing robots to look like human beings could dangerously confuse these lines, they warn. Politicians might decide to spend much less money on doctors and nurses because they think robots can do everything.
Is a robot something people would actually want as a caregiver? Conran mentions an interesting point. For the generations now growing up that are accustomed to digital culture, centred on their instant gratification, the idea of 24-hour attention may even be desired. "These people are going to have completely different expectations," he says. "They will expect the state to provide for them in a different way than previous generations did. The quality of life has constantly got better and better, and we're coming up against the fact that, instead of getting better and better, things are beginning to drop off. Ageing needs to be improved."
Text adapted from an article by Thomas McMULLAN. The Guardian (November 6, 2016)
caregiver: cuidador, cuidadora
to prompt: indicar
to emerge: emergir / emerger
funding: fons / fondos