Introduction
After Covid-19 hit the world unsuspectedly in 2020, many never-before-expected problems came into reality. There were many obvious consequences such as higher unemployment rates, an increase in depression rates, people dying because of covid, etc. The number of patients in need of dire medical support grew as a result of Covid-19. More patients in hospitals meant access to urgent medical help would be harder, the people and especially kids that we’re able to access hospitals were suffering from the effects of self-isolation, such as loneliness and stress. As a result, hospitals were looking for solutions to help children deal with these effects, as children are the most susceptible to getting overwhelmed by these feelings. And so, Robin the Robot came into the limelight.
What is Robin?
Robin the Robot wasn’t actually developed after the Covid-19 outbreak, rather it became substantially more popular during this period of time. The team behind Robin the Robot developed Robin at the start of 2018, raising approximately $200,000 in initial funding from SmartGateVC, HIVE Ventures, and angel investors. Essentially, Robin is a robot that is programmed to help children overcome anxiety and stress. “It is the first of its kind utilizing our AI-based patent-pending technology to build peer-to-peer emotional interactions with children.” says the CEO of the company Karen Khachikyan.
What sort of things can it do?
A child could think of Robin as a friendly companion. Robin can tell funny stories and jokes, play educational and interactive games, and explain complicated medical procedures in simple ways. During the hospital stay, Robin visits the children regularly to ensure they’re feeling well emotionally, resulting in a faster recovery. Thanks to Robin, the kids are a lot more cooperative and the doctors job is lighter, making it easier for them to prepare the children for their procedures. The CEO adds “Robin is kind of an adorable buddy who is always there to support and help during the challenging times.”
How satisfied are children with Robin?
After the first month of joining the staff at the hopital, a questionnaire was created to measure the overall satisfaction of children with Robin. The results were surprising as there was a 34% drop in stress and an overall 26% increase in joyfulness. “All the kids who have once interacted with Robin have shown interest in meeting it again. There were cases of improved appetite and an increase in cheerfulness after interactions with Robin.” said Khachikyan.
Summary
Personally, I believe that implementing such robots in hospitals worldwide would help reduce the uncooperative aspect of children and help them feel more at ease. While I do also think that having such robots roaming around would be hard getting used to for children and adults alike, the overarching benefit that it brings is, in my opinion, undeniable. Having said that, a question still stands, will this robot be normalized in hospitals worldwide or will it be just another invention that goes overlooked? And my answer to that is: I hope it becomes the norm!
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Products like that are a great idea. It’s good that more companies are starting to use technology to help us not only do things faster or better but also to help us take care of ourself and our mental health. Especially when it comes to children since they can sometimes be ashamed to talk about mental health issues or simply don’t know what is going on. It’s a little bit sad though that it took a pandemic for the world to really start caring about things like that, and realizing kids in hospitals need mental support.
Do you see any downsides in this type of tech? How you can build the process of trust – relationship between parents considering different cultures?
Yeah most definitely! There are definitely negatives to Robin just like every other innovation. As a mentioned in the article above, one of the main downsides of Robin is having to normalize this technology within hospitals. In the beginning, getting children used to this technology was be proven to be difficult, but as time passed, these kids started to feel more at home and more comfortable. One of the core functions that Robin serves is making kids feel at ease and it’s programmed to be able to make them engaged and cheerful. Having the definite trust in children towards robots such as Robin is crucial for their overall satisfaction in hospitals.