A Robot as Shrink or as Nurse...

Que Sera....
2008-Jan-28 - A Robot as Shrink or as Nurse...



Due to a shortage of geriatric helpers, Japan has found a remarkable solution.The government has commissioned various factories to construct a robot , which can serve as a geriatric assistant.Car manufacturer Honda has already designed a model that can dance and serve tea.Toyota showed a hominoid robot that is able to play the violin.
Not only nursing robots will be used in the near future but there is already a possibility to consult a "shrink"robot, called a robot-coach by its inventor, the psychologist Jaap Hollander.This robot can't give you a ready- made answer, but a structure to find a solution yourself.The robot-coach doesn't say: "Come sit down and tell me what the matter is!".It is above all to the point. It asks:"Which problem do you want to tackle today?" Your answer must be maximal eight words."We might change a few things,"says Jaap Hollander, psychologist and together with colleague Jeffrey Wijnberg the brains behind www.mindmentor.com. It's a computer programme offering the latest way of psychiatric help.It creates an environment that enables people to find a solution themselves. After paying 4.95 euro you are asked to spend an hour and start the test.The programme has its limitations: it has no intuition, a limited linguistic feeling and it is not creative.It isn't fit for very depressive people.Above all it might be an obstacle that the programme is in English, because the programmers didn't speak Dutch. Hollander and Wijnberg left it be like that. Anyone who finished a secondary school in the Netherlands can read the test.But....
I don't know if it is only me, but I prefer a personal approach and treatment