Archive for the ‘disability’ Category

PostHeaderIcon Robot friends Milo and Kaspar to help with Autism

Robotics is helping people with autism. Milo may look similar to the puppet in a suitcase of the ventriloquist showman of yesteryear but this boy robot helps autistic people to interact without the stress of deciphering ambiguous human emotions. Some family use apps to communicate with their autistic child via a pal on the app – again facial expression are easy to understand and the virtual pal becomes a reliable friend who never gets upset. With Milo you have a full robot person “in the flesh”, he can even have a little dance.

A similar concept is Kaspar from the University of Hertfordshire, on this video we can see how autistic children are enjoying the simple and predictive response of their robot friend Kaspar. The Uni has 20 prototypes designed to help children with autism to better understand emotions and facial expressions and build social skills through this simple interaction. Nursery staff where the prototypes are being tested are complimenting the positive impact on the children.

https://www.daynurseries.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/1577637/Kaspar-the-friendly-robot-teaches-children-human-feelings

Update 26/02/2017 6 minutes documentary and chat about "Kaspar the Robot helps Autistic Children"