Pepper the robot arrives at BioQuarter to aid dementia research
The possibility of using robots to help those with dementia.
It’s known that the symptoms of dementia can be prevented or lessened by regular human interaction. Chancellor's Fellow Dr Saturnino Luz is to investigate if similar benefits can be achieved via interaction with programmed robots or artificial intelligences.
Dr Luz recently took delivery of a 'Pepper' robot from SoftBank Robotics, which will be used as part of his research, supported by students Pierre Albert and Sofia de la Fuente.
Towards the end of 2017 Dr Luz attended The Centre for Dementia Prevention’s annual conference at The University of Edinburgh, where Pepper presented to people during a fayre, talking and gesturing along to slides that were showing on its chest.