Worried About Getting Old? Get a Robot to Help From: Globe and Mail (Canada) - 07/20/2007 By: Erin Anderssen Roboticists such as Stanford University's Sebastian Thrun believe rapidly-evolving robots could be the key to preserving the quality of life for Canada's elderly population, which faces the inevitability of receding independence as age wears down their faculties. Thrun uses the example of his father, who underwent a quick decline after he was deemed unfit to drive, as a case that robotic companions, caregivers, and other mechanical assistants could help prevent. The Stanford scientist is concentrating on the development of a self-guiding robot vehicle to be field-tested in experiments such as DARPA's Grand Challenge competition. Meanwhile, Alex Mihailidis of the University of Toronto is testing artificially intelligent caregivers designed to help people with cognitive dysfunction, such as a computer system linked to a camera-equipped bathroom that reminds Alzheimer's patients to wash their hands. Major steps have been taken in robot vision systems; scientists at the University of British Columbia have devised a machine that can map out the contours of its surroundings instead of blindly measuring distances from objects via sensors and infrared. An increase in sensor intelligence and computer speed has helped enable the relatively inexpensive and fast processing of massive data sets by robots. Humanoid machines are thus far restricted by their high cost and limited practicality. Many researchers say the challenge of releasing such robots into the world is focused on ethical and legal ramifications, such as who should be held accountable when a machine makes a mistake. Read the entire article at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070720.wrobots0720/BNStory/Technology/home http://www.rbcinvest.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070720.wrobots0720/tech/Technology/techBN/rbc-technology Links: Sebastian Thrun http://robots.stanford.edu/ Grand Challenge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darpa_grand_challenge Alex Mihailidis http://www.ot.utoronto.ca/iatsl/people/amihailidis.htm A home that helps us "age in place" http://www.torontorehab.on.ca/newsite/research/mihailidis.htm