How Telepresence Robots Are Combating the Debilitating Effects of Isolation and Loneliness (bbc.com) 28
Internet-connected robots that can stream audio and video are increasingly helping housebound sick children and elderly people keep in touch with teachers, family and friends, combating the scourge of isolation and loneliness. BBC: Zoe Johnson, 16, hasn't been to school since she was 12. She went to the doctor in 2014 "with a bit of a sore throat", and "somehow that became A&E [accident and emergency]," says her mother, Rachel Johnson. The doctors diagnosed myalgic encephalomyelitis, ME for short, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - a debilitating illness affecting the nervous and immune systems. Zoe missed a lot of school but was able to continue with her studies with the help of an online tutor. But "over the years her real-world friendships disappeared because she's not well enough to see anybody," says Ms Johnson. For the last three months, though, she has been taking classes alongside her former classmates using a "telepresence" robot called AV1. The small, cute-looking robot, made by Oslo-based start-up No Isolation, sits in the classroom and live streams video and audio back to Zoe's tablet or smartphone at home. She can speak through the robot and take part in lessons, also controlling where AV1 is looking.
Good hygiene. (Score:3)
Are these telepresence robots washable? Asking for a friend.
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Re:Good hygiene. (Score:4, Funny)
most are just cameras on wheels and lack limbs with degrees of freedom, so they're ill suited for either cooking or being a sexbot. Get a woman, they can even wash themselves too.
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Not the ones I like.
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he just likes them smelly and unbathed, basically we're talking french and certain former soviet country women here.
Idiots (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem in many, many cases is that people, especially elderly, don't fucking HAVE living family or friends, and don't go to school.
Older people's family members and friends are often all dead. They often have no viable transportation options in many areas of the US as well with no resources to move to somewhere better, or at least no transportation options that are affordable on Social Security benefits that are far below the poverty level and eaten up by medical insurance co-pays, out-of-pocket costs, deductibles, etc etc.
This is simply a bunch of self-serving assholes trying to monetize people's suffering. Fuck them!
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Where did we go wrong?
TV, the internet, people moving far away from parents and extended family. Even athiests can see the importance of religion as a social institution. One of my biggest complaints about the left is that they destroy, as they detest the existing and traditional, but never create when it comes to good things. And I don't mean technology and technology as that is more politically neutral. Take the boy scouts as an example. Great institution that was decimated due to being caught up in the culture wars and p
It's Insane to Think Your Computer Cares for You (Score:2)