CosmoBot levels the playing field for disabled children From: ACM interactions - Volume 12, Number 2 (2005), Pages 14-16 By: Corinna Lathan, Amy Brisben, and Charlotte Safos Most children with disabilities are engaged in some form of therapeutic rehabilitation and receive special education services. Therapists and educators spend much of their time trying to motivate children to perform therapy or participate in educational activities. Technology, specifically robotics, can level the playing field for therapists, educators, and children with disabilities. The CosmoBot system has been designed to provide motivation for children to perform their therapies, thereby assisting therapists and educators to perform their tasks more effectively and efficiently. A primary objective, particularly for children with severe disabilities, is to encourage them to interact as much as possible with their environment. For this reason, the gestural interface technology is enhanced with a robot, designed to act as a child's friend and companion. By motivating children to interact with a robot, professionals can focus on providing excellent care to these children. The system will also benefit parents and family members of children with disabilities to motivate children to learn while having fun. Read the entire article at: http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1060000/1052453/p14-lathan.html?key1=1052453&key2=6404011111&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=40264284&CFTOKEN=7353557 Citation: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1052453&jmp=cit&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=40264284&CFTOKEN=7353557#CIT --- Robotic products to assist the aging population From: ACM interactions - Volume 12, Number 2 (2005), Pages 16-18 By: Jodi Forlizzi Technological advances are being directed to assist the senior population and those who provide care. These products, which can be charted in the assistive robotics literature, emphasize the independence of the elderly as a primary goal. They provide support for a range of basic activities, including eating, bathing, dressing, and toileting. They support mobility in the form of ambulation assistance and rehabilitation. They provide household maintenance in the form of monitoring and maintaining safety in particular environments [4]. However, many of these products have been designed with little consideration of the social, aesthetic, and emotional relationships that the elder (and community of users) will form with the product. Instead of supporting the elder's quality of life, many instead highlight the disabilities of their users and are stigmatizing. Future assistive robotic products need to move beyond task-based interactions, and be attractive, affordable, and non-stigmatizing. Accessibility, ease of use, and reliability are particularly important for this population. Read the entire article at: http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1060000/1052454/p16-forlizzi.html?key1=1052454&key2=7654011111&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=40264284&CFTOKEN=7353557 Citation: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1052454&jmp=cit&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=40264284&CFTOKEN=7353557#CIT --- Socially intelligent robots From: ACM interactions - Volume 12, Number 2 (2005), Pages 19-22 By: Cynthia Breazeal What is a socially intelligent robot? It is a difficult concept to define, but science fiction offers many examples. There are the mechanical droids R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars. There are many wonderful examples in the short stories of Isaac Asimov, such as Robbie. And more recently, there is Teddy from the movie Artificial Intelligence. Science fiction illustrates how these technologies could enhance our lives and benefit society, but it also warns us that this dream must be approached responsibly and ethically, as portrayed in Blade Runner. ... Health-related and eldercare applications are being widely explored. Several universities are developing robots that lend assistance to the elderly in an eldercare facility, such as socially interactive robotic walkers that escort patients to appointments with the nurse or care provider. Doctor's have begun to explore robotic telepresense technologies - remotely operating a mobile robot equipped with video conferencing technology to allow them to visit their patients at different hospitals. In addition, researchers are developing robotic pet therapy surrogates that are intended to provide the same health benefits of their living counterparts. Read the entire article at: http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1060000/1052455/p19-breazeal.html?key1=1052455&key2=7274011111&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=40264284&CFTOKEN=7353557 Citation: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1052455&jmp=cit&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=40264284&CFTOKEN=7353557#CIT --- Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. The Digital Library is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright - 2005 ACM, Inc.