COU
RT
ESY
I
N
TUI
TIO
N
ROB
OTI
CS
Seniors and technology: If you’ve thought about these two
things in conjunction, there’s a good chance it was because a
grandparent asked you for help getting on “the Facebook.” Or
where to view those presidential tweets they’re always talking
about on the news. And what’s a tweet, anyway? But there’s a
not-so-funny truth behind this comic trope. Half of adults over
65 who live independently report feeling excessively lonely,
and more than a third say they see only one other person in
a typical week. In many cases, tech is making their isolation
worse: The more our interpersonal interactions happen
on smartphones and messaging services, the more those who
don’t speak digital get left out.;
The idea behind ElliQ, a “social robot” from Intuition
Robotics, which is based in Jerusalem, is to flip this dynamic
on its head. Responding to voice commands, ElliQ reads its
users their emails and text messages, displays new photos
Prototype Why, Grandmother, What a Cool Robot You Have
BY JEFF BERCOVICI
;
Desk Set
To make ElliQ
friendly for seniors,
the designers
thought more
Toy Story and less
Transformers.
o
