In a recent study by MIT Media Lab, researchers have created a robotic teddy bear named Huggable to support pediatric specialists. The purpose of the teddy bear is to increase interaction on an emotional level with hospitalized children. This could help doctors to better understand their emotions, which subsequently could improve the recovery process (The New York Times, 2015).
The experiment was carried out in the pediatric department, where children were randomly appointed to a tablet with the virtual teddy bear, a normal stuffed teddy bear or Huggable, the robotic teddy bear. The experiment has shown improvement on the mental state of the children with the latter intervention. The study has shown results that the robot bear helped to lift up the mood of the child and eased the anxiety. In addition, the pain level was perceived lower by the patient that engaged with the robotic teddy bear (Matheson, 2019).
The teddy bear is currently assisted by a specialist, that talks through the bear with an altered voice and plays with the child. The aim for the future is to develop an automated teddy bear, that also can be brought home to monitor the child. While it interacts with the child, it can simultaneously gather data and information. However, researchers are concerned with the long-term us of the robotic bear. The question is whether the interest for the companion will stay the same after it is brought home (Matheson, 2019).
Eventually, the technology will improve and these robots can respond better to the needs of the patients. Moreover, not only does the robot have a therapeutic value for children but it could also serve as a companion for elderly that are coping with isolation. There certainly will be a lot more opportunities for the deployment of social robots in the health care industry.
Sources:
Matheson, R. (2019).Study: Social robots can benefit hospitalized children.[online] MT News. Available at: http://news.mit.edu/2019/social-robots-benefit-sick-children-0626. [Accessed 8 Oct. 2019]
The New York Times.(2015).A Talking Teddy Bear Practicing in the Pediatric Hospital.[online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/technology/huggable-robot-therapeutic-value-hospitals.html[Accessed 8 Oct. 2019]
Dear Cheung,
interesting topic – I also wrote about the use of robotics in the future health care industry. My concerns by using any kind of robots are the following ones:
1.) Humans will no longer take responsibility for mistakes. Hence, the question arises what will happen after a robot made a mistake …
a. Will he be punished?
– Punishing a robot does not make a lot of sense as robots have no feelings or emotions (at least at the moment). So to my mind this option would not be the right one.
b. Will he be “suspended”?
– Suspension could make sense if the robot already made a lot of mistakes, and the IT-specialist are not able to find the problem. Then the robot could be allocated to a more basic task with less risk potential.
c. Will nothing happen to the robot as robots are very expensive?
– Mistakes always happen, so that robots should not be held responsible if they make mistakes rarely and in a range which is accepted (e.g. in 99,99% the do the right thing –> in 0,01% they are allowed to do a mistake).
2.) Unemployment/ loss of skills
The more important and common robots get, the more likely that humans are replaced. The advantages are various as we know, e.g. less mistakes, more accurate “work” or surgeries and less costly in the long run. But what happens when more and more jobs are replaced? Of course, some of the workers can be retrained and could be in charge of the robots. But not every employee can potentially become a trainer … I think a solution has to be find for this problem because in the end not only costs are significant but also if we humans have enough to live from. Furthermore, a job also gives a meaning to life.
What do you think? Do you have similar fears? And what are your solutions to that problem?
Best regards,
Alex
References for further information:
Asaro, P. (2007) ‘Robots and responsibility from a legal perspective’, Proceedings of 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
Kopacek, P. (2014) ‘Ethical and social aspects of robots’, in IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline).
Sharkey, A. and Sharkey, N. (2012) ‘Granny and the robots: Ethical issues in robot care for the elderly’, Ethics and Information Technology. doi: 10.1007/s10676-010-9234-6.
Yang, G. Z. et al. (2017) ‘Medical robotics-Regulatory, ethical, and legal considerations for increasing levels of autonomy’, Science Robotics. doi: 10.1126/scirobotics.aam8638.
Hi Deveny,
Interesting article!
This reminds me of an episode of Black Mirror in which they also used a “doll” to improve the well being of children, by serving as a friend. However, don’t you think that it could be an issue regarding the data and the analytics of the teddy bears? Like what data does it gather, how the children are speaking and what they are talking about? Is this ethical do you think?
Interested to hear your opinion
Hi Deveny,
Interesting read! However, I still have my doubt regarding the chance that this technology will be deployed in the near future. First of all, what are the costs to produce these teddy bears? To me, it sound like a technology that requires quite a lot money and not a lot of patients will be able to afford that. Secondly, how will the teddy bear be maintained? Will it be the job of hospitals to carry out its maintenance and will they be re-used after the teddy bear has done it job? Lastly, just like you mentioned in the article, the problem of the use of teddy bears at home. Furthermore, I think the hospital need to take into the privacy problem into consideration as well. What is allowed and what is not allowed to do with the bear in order to gather the data while also not violating the rights of the patients. Looking forward to your reply! 😉
Hi Ann,
Thank you for your comment! I agree with you on the rising concerns that comes with deploying the teddy robot. I have to admit that I am not sure to what extend the teddy bear will be able to gather specific data or how they would do that. But to answer your first question, I think these robots are just supporting devices for the medical team to track simple information of their patients. So in that sense, I think the total costs are for the hospitals and patients need to pay a deposit for “renting” the bear. As for maintenance, this surely will be the job for hospitals when it concerns confidential data. However, as it is still in a test-phase, I cannot give you absolute answers.