Two Queensland universities teamed up with tech startups to see how “care robots” can care for people. It is focused on how to improve the lives of people who require high-level care. The technology works on responding to sounds, eye movements, and gestures. It can also flag seizures, falls, and fevers.
Russell Conyar is unable to speak after two strokes, and also has epilepsy. He and his partner Karen Caddis have been together since 2007. He proposed just months before his first stroke, in 2013. They joined the pilot, run by QUT, the University of Queensland, and Brisbane-based start-up Ariel Care, hoping to make their lives “easier and safer”. Mr. Conyar needs 24-hour care and knowing what he wants is like a “guessing game”, Ms. Caddis said.
“Sometimes it is like a competition. What does he want? Does he need a drink? Or the hoist to go to the toilet? He can’t verbally tell us.” The trial focuses on people with acquired brain injuries and disabilities that require assisted living. Mr. Conyar uses a Brisbane-developed smart bed with sensors that provide a “halo-like safety net”. A ceiling mount can detect fevers, choking, falls, moisture, seizures, or elevated heart rate.
Technology
It is the eye-sensor technology that Ms. Caddis is most excited about. While it has been used in gaming, developers Ariel Care say they are creating a “new language” with algorithms that let people use an eye movement or gesture to send a message to their carer’s mobile phone or computer. “If I am outside talking and he wants a drink, he can access the monitor with his eye and I know ‘OK, Russ wants a drink’,” Ms. Caddis said. “Instead of him screaming out, at the top of his voice, as he does sometimes, but we can’t understand what he wants.”
The 61-year-old now lives in a joint care home in Ipswich, west of Brisbane. Ms. Caddis comes every day and carers are on duty when she is not there. “Because when he was having seizures a lot earlier this year, the carers had to put a bed here, so they could keep an eye on him.” Professor Mark Harvey, vice president of QUT business development, said the trial was revolutionary. “It is bringing together that high-tech into a home environment for high-need people,” he said. “So very much re-creating the level of care that you would have in an intensive care facility in a hospital, bringing that together at home.”
