Meet Mr. Robin, grandma's robot buddy - CNN.com

Giraffplus robot monitors a person's health and lets them communicate with carers Care o bot robot helps old people carry items and open doors Some researchers warn that robots shouldn't impair people's autonomy Giraffplus robot monitors a person's health and lets them communicate with carers Some researchers warn that robots shouldn't impair people's autonomy Almost eight years have passed since Bill Gates hailed a new era of "a robot in every home," and for most of us the sci-fi dream of an all-purpose automated assistant seems no closer. But in her Rome apartment, 94-year-old author Lea Mina Ralli, known as "Nonna Lea" (Grandma Lea), enjoys 24-hour care courtesy of her live-in android, which she has named "Mr. The machine comprises a tablet screen attached to a mobile unit, remotely connected to sensors around Lea's home that monitor her vital signs and activity. It feeds this information to the carers who visit her regularly and signals them in a case of emergency, such as a bad fall or elevated blood pressure. Mr. Robin also provides the more basic but valuable service of keeping Lea permanently connected to her family and medical staff, as they can converse via the robot's tablet-screen face at the touch of a button. This improved remote access allows her to remain independent. "It is very useful for older people who prefer to live in their own home where there are memories and comforts," Ralli said. "This automaton can become the companion of every elderly person who, while having to live alone, likes to feel protected." The Italian is one of six participants in a ground-breaking trial of the GiraffPlus system, an EU-funded project to bring robotics into the homes of the elderly and infirm, ahead of a commercial launch in 2015. It targets a demographic whose care has become a high-stakes riddle; aging populations are projected to push the cost of Alzheimer's patients above $1 trillion by 2050 in the United States alone, while growing use of care homes and their 24-hour support is also straining resources. The team behind GiraffPlus hope taking their work out of labs and into people's homes will convince the public and health workers that the technology is a viable option, with the capacity to improve quality of life. "We're trying to understand personal requirements rather than general requirements," said Amy Loutfi, the project coordinator and roboticist of Örebro University, Sweden. "The data can help us to understand if someone is eating or sleeping properly, and how to satisfy that need on a technical level.