At the beginning of my career, 25 years ago, I worked for the HealthCare industry. I can’t forget my visits to the pediatrics departments. I used to spend part of my budget to organize little events for the hospitalized kids. In 1994, tech for entertainment was limited to renting the biggest TV possible and playing kids favorite cartoons on it. [...]

Robots are shaping the world of tomorrow. Robotics, Automation, and AI are groundbreaking technologies and will affect our lives in the near future. Much of the discussion of robots is how they will take care of us. Care is fundamental to everyday life. We can define care by all the things we constantly do to make life more bearable for [...]

Social robots have been increasingly involved in our daily lives and provide a new environment for children's growth. They can make a world of difference for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by social interaction and communication deficits and the presence of restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. Children and adults with [...]

In today’s healthcare systems, patient care pathways can involve many different components each providing a specific area of care. Poor care interfaces and process joins can lead to inefficiency and additional cost and can diminish the patient experience and result in lower satisfaction and poor patient care. Buddy healthcare system promotes quality, cost, effectiveness and service sustainability. Buddy, emotional and smart, [...]

Healthcare’s digital Revolution is changing the relationship between patients and their carers. The robot Buddy helps people to cope with specific diseases including chronic ones. Programmed to understand human interactions and respond accordingly, he becomes a healthcare mobile assistant and a valuable help for carers. The use of emotional and smart robots helps medical professionals in their practice of medicine. Versatile [...]

Only 12 percent of adults have proficient health literacy, according to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. In other words, nearly nine out of ten adults may lack the skills needed to manage their health and prevent disease. Furthermore, the problem of poor adherence is significant within the healthcare arena. Studies reveal low levels of adherence to treatment recommendations across health states, [...]

Advances in research and health care delivery have reduced mortality from diseases and extended life expectancy in developed countries. However, there is still an emotional cost to chronic diseases, long-term treatments and hospitalization for patients. Patients with repeated hospitalizations often experience physically and emotionally stress, as well as a sense of powerlessness. Studies show that kids and elders can benefit psychologically [...]

Improved living standards, better healthcare, greater awareness of the importance of a healthy diet and taking regular exercise have led to more and more people enjoying life into their 80s and 90s. However, older people, in particular, the frail elderly, are one of the groups of population most vulnerable to accidents, particularly in and around the home. Each year, millions [...]

Chronic diseases, long term hospitalizations, can lead to isolation and desocialization. The population at risk are elder and young patients. For elder patients, they face increased risks of social isolation because of factors like the death or absence of family and friends, loss of transportation and mobility impairment. Older adults who describe themselves as lonely have a 59 percent greater risk of functional [...]

If I ask my teenage nephew about the difference between Buddy "your Emotional Robot " and a voice assistant speaker, he will look at me with compassion thinking that I am definitely too old for the Tech world. " Laurence, a voice assistant works for me and Buddy works with me, it is all about the difference between information and communication".  [...]

Depending on whom you ask, you’ll get different definitions of what a robot is; Some define a robot as a mechanism like appliances (your Vitamix for example); for others, it’s a computer program. Some believe a robot can be defined as both of these things. This might explain why many people classify robots into the hardware family, even though actually [...]

The world’s aging population continues to widen making more and more apparent the issues in supply and demand in eldercare. This population problem is already very real in countries like Japan, where there will be an estimated shortage of 1 million caregivers by 2025. The U.S. is facing a similar dilemma — as the percentage of people aged 65 or [...]

Recent years have been full of books, movies, television shows, and newspaper editorials that all try to predict what kind of future with artificial intelligence might be for humans. Some imagine worrying scenarios, while others predict improvement in our ways of working and living. If industrial robots have been around for decades and concentrated much of the consumers' worries, the combination [...]