E.T.H.O.S.|Ethical Technology in the Homes of Seniors

Inspired by service dogs, inventors at Laboratory for Perpetual Robotics at the

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, have created the uBOT-5, a helpful, uncomplaining, no-shed robot to help aging adults remain independent. The uBOT-5 can carry out simple tasks, monitor the home environment, call for help, and doesn’t bark or shed! But it does allow caregivers to “step inside” via the Internet and spend some quality time with their older loved one via video and audio feed through the robot. In the future, a doctor might be able to “step inside” the robot and perform simple blood sugar or blood pressure measurements. While this might seem like the inventors were channeling the movie “Ghost,” the idea holds a lot of appeal for aging boomers who may not have family caregivers nearby.  Using service dogs as the inspiration for the human/computer interaction suggests an appealing way to develop technologies that fit older adults’ mental models of assistive technologies.