The bizarre Japanese style of automated health robot has landed in the UK’s hospital system, with one National Health Service (NHS) health trust unleashing the “telepresence” roving chatbot inside its wards.
The robotic helper — which looks unsettlingly like a Dalek — can be seen rolling itself around the intensive care unit at Daisy Hill Hospital in County Down, Northern Ireland, where doctors are able to use the thing to remotely interrogate patients from outside of the hospital, hopefully cutting down on the need to transfer sickly folk between hospitals and reducing the travel time of specialists.
The remote unit transmits the patient’s charts, an HD video stream of their ill faces, plus there’s a built-in stethoscope for relaying heart and breathing noises to viewing doctors. It’ll be like being there, only without so much pressure to wash your hands. [BBC]
Our newest offspring Gizmodo UK is gobbling up the news in a different timezone, so check them out if you need another Giz fix. [clear]