Possible: iRobot CiCi “Elder Care” Robot
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 24 of December , 2007 at 5:35 am
At a medical devices conference in Boston last month, iRobot apparently had on display a prototype of an “elder care” robot named CiCi. Although iRobot has refused to comment on CiCi, they’ve at least confirmed that it exists as a concept. The unit on display in Boston “stood about the size of a desktop computer and was the shape of a human upper body without arms.” Sources at MIT say that “the robot has audio features that can be used to check on elderly patients at home and would be linked to a network to alert clinicians elsewhere of a medical problem.” Other than that, not much information is available… It sounds like a much more sophisticated and interactive version of the iRobot ConnectR. Although CiCi could be just a proof of concept design, it’s also possible that iRobot is waiting to see what the reception is like for ConnectR before they commit to producing an elder care robot. It’s also worth noting that elder care robots are undergoing heavy development in Korea, and elder care was forecast to be a major part of the growing robotics market at RoboDevelopment.
[ Mass High Tech ]
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Category: Medical
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