GeckoSystems continue to better understand the benefit of personal care robots

Jan 13 2010

GeckoSystems Intl. Corp. (PINKSHEETS: GCKO) (http://www.geckosystems.com/) announced today that they continue to better understand the benefit of personal care robots, such as their CareBot™, to the family as their in home evaluation trials continue. GeckoSystems is a dynamic leader in the emerging Mobile Service Robot industry revolutionizing their development and usage with "Mobile Robot Solutions for Safety, Security, and Service™."

"We are learning that valued family behaviors can be readily expressed to the care receiver using a CareBot due to the robustness of its functionality. Here, primarily GeckoChat™ and GeckoScheduler™ are utilized," commented Martin Spencer, President/CEO, GeckoSystems.

"My elderly mother no longer uses the telephone due to her hearing loss. Her grandchildren miss speaking to her on the phone and are excited about being able to give her messages from them through her CareBot. They want to let her know they will be seeing her on her upcoming 94th birthday. Needless to say, the grandchildren are excited that they can convey their personal birthday message to her through the CareBot. I am also pleased that they are interested in contributing anecdotes and greetings to share with their grandmother who is participating in this trial," said one of the elder care robot trial caregivers.

Please note that this trial participant has notable short-term memory loss, in addition to poor hearing. GeckoScheduler is enabling the caregiver to program the CareBot to remind her mother of her grandchildren's birthday wishes many times a day so even though she may forget, she gets "reminded" of their best wishes.

"We have recently learned that important, valued family behaviors and anecdotes can now be aggregated by members of the family and/or friends to further personalize the CareBot's interaction with the care receiver. Hence our coining of the more appropriate term, 'personal family robot,' as compared to simply 'personal robot,'" summarized Spencer.

Like an automobile, mobile robots are made from steel, aluminum, plastic, and electronics, but with ten to twenty times the amount of software running. The CareBot has an aluminum frame, plastic shroud, two independently driven wheels, multiple sensor systems, microprocessors and several onboard computers connected in a local area network (LAN). The microprocessors directly interact with the sensor systems and transmit data to the onboard computers. The onboard computers each run independent, highly specialized cooperative/subsumptive artificial intelligence software programs, GeckoSavants™, which interact to complete tasks in a timely, intelligent and common sense manner. GeckoNav™, GeckoChat™ and GeckoTrak™ are primary GeckoSavants. GeckoNav is responsible for all fully autonomous maneuvering, such as avoiding dynamic and/or static obstacles, running errands and patrolling. GeckoChat is responsible for interaction with the care receiver such as answering questions, assisting with daily routines and reminders, and responding to other verbal commands. GeckoTrak, which is mostly transparent to the user, enables the CareBot to maintain proximity to the care receiver using sensor fusion. The CareBot is an internet appliance that is accessible for remote video/audio monitoring and telepresence.