by University of Tsukuba Social mediator robot. Credit: University of Tsukuba Social Mediator Robots (SMRs), which facilitate communication by mediating messages among people, are considered to prevent isolation in elderly individuals. To avoid isolation, it is crucial for the elderly to talk about their daily problems to others (self-disclosure). SMRs that support such self-disclosure are being...
by Pauline CURTET Garmi is a product of a new sector called geriatronics, which taps advanced technologies for geriatrics, gerontology and nursing. The white-colored humanoid “Garmi” does not look much different from a typical robot—it stands on a platform with wheels and is equipped with a black screen on which two blue circles acting as...
By Kurt Robson Doctors wearing virtual reality goggles examining skeleton Robots will soon be being deployed more as companions than tools in the healthcare industry, and revolutionary surgical robots will be able to carry out more complex procedures – some of which have never been seen before. The medical robotics market was worth $4.7bn in 2020...
Robots can be better at detecting mental wellbeing issues in children than parent-reported or self-reported testing, a new study suggests. A team of roboticists, computer scientists, and psychiatrists from the University of Cambridge conducted a study with 28 children between the ages of eight and 13 and had a child-sized humanoid robot administer a series...
By Adam Barnes Istock Story at a glance Researchers analyzed data on workplace injuries in the U.S., finding that injuries were reduced by 1.2 cases per 100 workers in regions with one standard deviation increase in robot exposure. But in regions where there were significant numbers working with robots, there was an increase of 37.8 cases...
Robots have come a long way. For years they have been supporting human activity – enabling exploration in dangerous and unreachable environments like out in space and deep in the oceans. A new generation of robots are being designed to stay closer to home – caring for ageing adults and young children. In the not-too-distant future, elderly...
Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) hold great promise for treating many currently untreatable diseases. Scientists can turn them into brain, liver, heart and other types of cells that could mend injured or unhealthy ones. However, the processes for culturing and differentiating hiPSCs into other kinds of cells take a lot of time and resources,...
Getting swarms of robots to work collectively can be challenging, unless researchers carefully choreograph their interactions—like planes in formation—using increasingly sophisticated components and algorithms. But what can be reliably accomplished when the robots on hand are simple, inconsistent, and lack sophisticated programming for coordinated behavior? Researchers sought to show that even the simplest of robots can still accomplish tasks well...
MEDGADGET EDITORS While endoscopes give physicians a view into the interior of the GI tract, they are limited in the areas that they can reach and the imaging they can provide. Miniaturized imaging devices in the form of swallowable electronic pills have been around for a few years now. They move through the entirety of the GI tract, but...
MIT researchers have developed a technique to mass produce cell–sized robots out of graphene(Credit: Felice Frankel) Robots are getting smaller and smaller, from the size of bugs down to tiny bead-shaped robots that could one day swim through the body to monitor health or deliver medication. MIT engineers recently managed to create cell–sized robots that could collect data about their environment, but were a little tricky to manufacture. Now, the team has found...
