Robotics in Healthcare
I got my inspiration for this topic "Robotics in Healthcare" from two things. First was a from an recent Bloomberg
magazine news article "Life,
Or Something Like It",
where the article talked about how Mark Sagar, who “mastered the art of creating
super-lifelike faces” in Spider-Man, is now working to build people from the inside out. He is
creating a virtual baby that thinks and acts like a human baby. This article fascinates me as it's something that I would see in an Sci-Fi movie. It also corresponds to another article I read about a realistic-looking humanoid machine named "Nadine" that was created by scientists in Singapore at Nanyang Technology University. Nadine was created to transform a virtual human, from within a computer, into a physical being that is able to observe and interact with other humans. She currently works as a receptionist at the university.
My other inspiration for the topic comes from this short clip on a robotic seal in healthcare for elderly in Japan, that I watched in my other class, that made me want to learn more about the use of AI or robotics in healthcare systems, especially as care and companionship for the elderly. So my goal for the project was to research the different types of robotics used in healthcare, and explore the ethical and moral concerns behind using robotics for elderly people. I wanted to make sure that this new technology could be of help for the future of healthcare.
During my research, I discovered that there are a lot of different types of robotics that are currently being developed, or are already used in hospitals. I learned a lot about the ethical concerns of having a robotic companion, and was puzzled at why people would want to have a robotic cat, instead of a real cat. It was fascinating to see how the robotics are diverse, and used in all kinds of companionships. They could bear the appearance of a piece of furniture, to more robotic-like, to looking like a real human or animal. It showed me how technology has evolved, and robotics are slowly becoming more human-like that it would be hard to differentiate between a real human and a humanoid. There is even the fear that robotics would eventually learn how to feel and want to have their own rights.
Robotics is still evolving in healthcare. Scientists are looking into ways to develop more human-like robots to help communicate with elders, and children. In the future, we need to make sure that we don't depend on the robots fully. We, humans should still double check the data, make sure that privacy concerns are not leaked, and spend more time with the elderly. The robotics companions are still helpful, and easier for elders or people with dementia to communicate with, but we should still try to listen and help the elders.
My other inspiration for the topic comes from this short clip on a robotic seal in healthcare for elderly in Japan, that I watched in my other class, that made me want to learn more about the use of AI or robotics in healthcare systems, especially as care and companionship for the elderly. So my goal for the project was to research the different types of robotics used in healthcare, and explore the ethical and moral concerns behind using robotics for elderly people. I wanted to make sure that this new technology could be of help for the future of healthcare.
During my research, I discovered that there are a lot of different types of robotics that are currently being developed, or are already used in hospitals. I learned a lot about the ethical concerns of having a robotic companion, and was puzzled at why people would want to have a robotic cat, instead of a real cat. It was fascinating to see how the robotics are diverse, and used in all kinds of companionships. They could bear the appearance of a piece of furniture, to more robotic-like, to looking like a real human or animal. It showed me how technology has evolved, and robotics are slowly becoming more human-like that it would be hard to differentiate between a real human and a humanoid. There is even the fear that robotics would eventually learn how to feel and want to have their own rights.
Robotics is still evolving in healthcare. Scientists are looking into ways to develop more human-like robots to help communicate with elders, and children. In the future, we need to make sure that we don't depend on the robots fully. We, humans should still double check the data, make sure that privacy concerns are not leaked, and spend more time with the elderly. The robotics companions are still helpful, and easier for elders or people with dementia to communicate with, but we should still try to listen and help the elders.
Alice, the topic of A.I. in healthcare is one that interests me as well and I'm glad I was able to see your presentation on it. Something I didn't know before seeing your presentation and reading this blog post is how advanced we already are at creating these robots. Before, when I thought about robots I would think of clunky machines that looked like a human but could be distinguished as a robot. But seeing the article about "Nadine" really took me by surprised by how real it looks and how it interacts with people. One thing I would like to know about is the nano-robotics. Since we are able to create more realistic robots, I would like to know what the future of nano-robots are and how they can used to help improve our overall health.
ReplyDeleteThank you for presenting on such an interesting topic.
Your topic of "A.I robotic" does really interested me. The word A.I reminded me of an old A.I movie I have seen before, but it does not have anything related to Healthcare. The movie is called "A.I artificial intelligence", where this robot boy became attached to this human woman and as the movie slowly progresses he got frozen for many centuries to the end of humanity. I guess the end of humanity is what got people afraid of this type health research, since robots are made of metals (meaning hard to defend against), they can or at any time could outsmart the humans. But for me I think is neutral, in both views there's the down side and positive aspect of health robotics. In the negative aspect, programming always run with errors, there's always bug in the system. Second, hackers can infiltrate with the system, they can change the system or steal personal information. Last, robot can become a subject of war machineries rather than improving the world health care. However, bugs and hackers stealing information or destroying the robots' system does not occur 24/7. Hacking or infiltrating the system can become a challenging approach for them, it might takes many times to remove the guard. Also since we always keep the system in update, there is more features for the hackers to solve before reaching into someone's information. Robots in our world of health care could be a big aid to our life, specially towards the large growing population of elderly. No all human are the same, if we think about it in terms of personality, people can also be easily overwhelm with whatever they are doing. So I think robots is a good replacement for taking care of the elderly. Another good aspect of healthcare robot is if we can imply a good system or skill of a physicians into a robot, I think it can speed up the process of surgery, organizing the health care system, faster rate of updating the patients' information, and fill in hospital position where we do really need those skills. Of course, there are bad side from it, but to be honest the world is never perfect anyway, so anything is a positive and minus.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I would like to learn more about is doctor robot, or surgeon robot, I was wondering how does it work? Performing a doctor task or surgeon's can sometimes be really complex, what if there is an new weird health condition that is never registered into the system, how would they do it? Just curious about it and thank you for sharing the information. I think robots could be great aid in shaping the health care system of the future, since we are living in a world where pretty much we are depending on technologies.
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