Robot as good as real dog at easing lonely hours

[flashl]

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A friendly dog can make older people feel less isolated -- and it appears to make little difference if that wagging tail belongs to a robot doggie or the real thing.

Researchers at Saint Louis University in Missouri compared a 35-pound (16 kg), floppy-eared mutt named Sparky with AIBO, a far-from-lifelike robot dog, to see how residents of three U.S. nursing homes would respond.

"The most surprising thing is they worked almost equally well in terms of alleviating loneliness and causing residents to form attachments," said Dr. William Banks, a professor of geriatric medicine who worked on the study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.

Banks said pets have been shown to help older people feel less isolated. "It really improves loneliness considerably," he said in a telephone interview.

But many senior citizens are too frail to care for a pet or have had to give up their own animals when they went to the nursing home. "They really miss that bond," he said.

Reuters

I am going to say, if nursing home residents are less lonely and the robot provides companionship, OK. Otherwise, replacing fido with a robot? No.

[JanMichael]

1. Can you imagine a Jack Russell Robot

I can't even think about it.

[jdadd]

2. Mmmmm...yeah

Batteries would be dead in five minutes. :hi:

[flashl]

3. Why did you put that image into my mind? That hurts. LOL

[IowaGirl]

4. Very interesting article.....

My 88 year old mother is so lonely but doesn't want to leave her home. I have tried and tried to convince her to move in with us but we live in another town 100 miles away and she just can't conceive of going that far away from the rest of her family and friends. It would be so nice for her to have a pet but she really can't take care of it and her skin is so delicate that pet claws are a real problem. I'd love to find some kind of robo-pet that would work.

[Traction311]

5. How many years before we have a robot with full AI?

I'm talking something like C-3PO. Can anyone with a degree in robotics or computer science give me a guesstimate of some sort? 25 years? 50? 100? 200? More?