Robot Dogs as Good as the Real Thing at Alleviating Loneliness
By MedHeadlines • Feb 29th, 2008 • Category: Elderly Care, Family, Lifestyle, PreventionThis dog doesn’t shed, have fleas, or need to be taken for a walk, but still provides companionship for grandma, that’s what researchers at Saint Louis University have concluded. The group conducted a study to compare how residents of three nursing homes interacted with Sparky, a living, medium-sized gentle mutt, and Aibo, a doggie robot once manufactured by Sony that looks like a three-dimensional cartoon.
The researchers were surprised to find that the robotic dog worked almost as well as the real dog at alleviating loneliness and causing the residents to form attachments.
To test whether residents connected better with Sparky or Aibo, researchers divided a total of 38 nursing home residents into three groups. All were asked questions to assess their level of loneliness. One group saw Sparky once a week for 30 minutes, another group had similar visits with Aibo, and a control group saw neither furry nor mechanical critter.
The residents who received visits from real and artificial pooches felt less lonely and more attached to their canine attention-givers than those who got visits from neither.
Researchers said the results from this study proves robotic dogs could help individuals who can not have a real dog of their own and possibly pave the way for developing robotic dogs that provide both companionship and that also could be programmed to help with health issues such as reminders to take medication, or send out an alert if a person is in trouble.
Source: St. Louis University
correlation does NOT imply causation. sheesh!
I’m sorry but a robotic pooch simply would not do it for me.
I need the fuzzy softness, the wet nose, the drooling tongue of a real dog, a creature who loves and depends on me, not some programmed canine-esque robot to “ease my loneliness”.
What’s next robotic human-like companions?
The robot dont look like real dogs or puppy with fur on it . Sound like that robot cant take for long walk with leash on it make look like real dog . Im looking for articifical dog that can make take long walk like real dog have and also wont have pay the vets, foods, etc. as I cant afford to buy real dogs or puppy because vets cost. As I like to take articifical dog or puppy to long walk with leash and also fool peopes to make them think it real but not. And also Does robot dog do have program for the Deaf?