ITALY: Down-to-earth robot offers care, company and security to elderly

Record ID: 401995

  • Title: ITALY: Down-to-earth robot offers care, company and security to elderly
  • Date: 8th July 2014
  • Summary: ROME, ITALY (RECENT - JULY 1, 2014) (REUTERS) GIRAFFPLUS ROBOT PLACING A CALL / FACE OF RESEARCHER FILIPPO PALUMBO, FROM THE ITALIAN NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL - INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGIES - APPEARING ON SCREEN-HEAD VARIOUS OF LEA MINA RALLI, AKA GRANDMA LEA, AND RESEARCHER SPEAKING THROUGH GIRAFFPLUS AND LAUGHING (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) LEA MINA RALLI
  • Embargoed: 23rd July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA10F8DJVLR5IHERC8CMBDYII0X
  • Story Text: A prototype robot that monitors the health of its owner is being tested in Rome by 94-year-old great-grandmother Lea Mina Ralli. The GiraffPlus System uses a network of sensors and an internet connection to monitor the health state and activities of an elderly person living alone.
    The developers hope the GiraffPlus System will provide vital early detection of potential health issues through its data collection, while also providing reassurance for the user that they can speak to a doctor or relative at the push of a button.
    At the heart of the system is a robot, called 'Giraff' because of its long 'neck', with a rotating monitor on top, that its creators define a 'telepresence'. Giraff can be operated remotely and uses an interface similar to that of Skype to allow doctors, caretakers, relatives and friends to 'virtually' visit and interact with the elderly person.
    Lea Mina Ralli, or 'Nonna Lea' (Grandma Lea) as she is known to most, was born in a northern-Italian noble house requisitioned for officials and families of soldiers who fought in World War I in 1919.
    During her 94-and-a-half years, she proudly pointed out, she has seen the world change several times over.
    And now, she is on the forefront of yet another change; a project developers hope will change the conditions and living standards of elderly people around the world.
    "I thought it was a jack-of-all-trades robot, so I called him Mr. Robin, because he seemed like an English butler who would do everything I needed,'' Nonna Lea said, watching the long-neck robot moving around her house.
    ''But that is not the case. He reasons with his little brain and I use mine. But he keeps me company and helps me feel calm because if there is a need they can check on me or request a response from me. I have my remote control and pressing the green button I can take a call from them and the robot becomes alive and the person appears on the turning screen head," she added.
    To protect the elderly person's privacy, the robot normally rests to charge with its screen-face to the wall and, if not under conditions of a suspected emergency, it needs to be 'called' by the user to be activated and incoming calls need to be accepted.
    "I liked the idea right from the start because it is very challenging for them and at the same time special for us elderly because we feel protected," Grandma Lea said.
    "The project is still in the experimental phase but I think the robot could already be taken into use, especially in hospitals and in other places because it enables you to look after a patient at their home, without needing to move them or hospitalise them which is a beautiful thing for us elderly people, who don't want to leave our homes where all our memories are. We even recover faster when we get to stay home," she added, surrounded in her apartment by a wealth of pictures and medals, some dating back to the late 19th century.
    Grandma Lea is one of five elderly people testing the GiraffPlus System in Italy, with five more testing the device in Sweden and the same number again in Spain.
    GiraffPlus technical manager Gabriella Cortellessa, from the multi-institution team of the Italian National Research Council that is working with Grandma Lea, says the EU-funded project is going very well and that Giraff is working very effectively in collecting and communicating relevant data.
    ''These details are interpreted through some artificial intelligence techniques which give us an indication of the life and the routines of the elderly person," said Cortellessa, adding that long-term monitoring would allow carers to notice any changes in the elderly people's routines and intervene early if the changes were an indication of illness or deterioration of their condition'.
    Cortellessa said feedback from the 15 people testing the device had shown that many of the elderly would prefer a more hands-on helper that also helps them with housekeeping, with more advanced manoeuvrability and also greater autonomy.
    She said that the latest lab version of the robot already has some added functions that originate from the elderly people's feedback.
    Developers, headed by Amy Loutfy of the Orebro University in Sweden, say they hope to have commercial production of the robot by the end of 2015 and believe the European Union (EU) market for robots and devices assisting the ever growing population of elderly people is estimated to reach 13 billion (17 billion USD) by 2016.
    In her 8th floor apartment, 'Mr Robin' has become a beloved feature of Grandma Lea's life.
    A passionate writer, who for nearly 70 years had to write at night to hide first from her mother, then from her ''authoritarian'' husband', she now updates her blog daily and also shares her experiences with 'Mr Robin'.
    After checking Grandma Lea's blood pressure and transmitting an on-screen call from one of the GiraffPlus researchers, 'Mr. Robin' took itself off to recharge, leaving Grandma Lea to continue with her latest composition: a poem dedicated to her latest-born great-grand child, Damiano.
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