Long, well worth reading, and watching the video...

http://www.upworthy.com/a-robot-whose-sole-purpose-is-to-connect-emotionally-with-cancer-patients-its-working-too?c=reccon3

A robot whose sole purpose is to connect emotionally

with cancer patients. It's working, too.

Curator: Lori White

 

Even the nurses were a little skeptical at first, but when Huggable started doing its job...

 

America, meet your robot overlord.

Its name is Huggable.

Huggable is the MIT-created robot with a crazy kid voice that hangs out in pediatric cancer wards.

Huggable operates on an Android app. Yep! That's a phone inside its head. It can signal emotions in its movement.

It can tell when you're touching it. Eventually, its hand will be able to sense pressure. If you squeeze its hand, technically Huggable could sense your pain.

NOT SO FAST, MR. HAWKING

"Huggable's purpose is to interact on an emotional level with children."
— Luke Plummer, MIT robotics engineer

Huggable is so emotionally supportive, it will gleefully listen to dad jokes.

AND LOVE IT.

What do eggs do for fun? Kara-YOLK-e! Get it?!

Yes, that just happened.

"Why do these kids with cancer need a teddy bear?!?" — something a very dark part of my inner monologue just said to me.

Well, here's the thing.

Kids with cancer UNDERREPORT how traumatized they are by having cancer.

From Medscape (emphasis mine):

The stress of treatment could cause a range of chronic problems, from phobia and anxiety for minor medical procedures,

such as blood taking, to panic attack under difficult conditions. This view is further supported by studies focused on stress in children during the treatment for cancer.

On the contrary, other studies suggest that even though the nursing and medical staff perceive more patient distress,

the self-reported anxiety in children with cancer is low.

Around 20% of childhood cancer sufferers are diagnosed with PTSD.

And many more suffer from emotional problems in school, in relationships, and beyond AFTER they beat cancer.

AFTER they fight the hardest battle humans fight — the battle of beating a disease that's trying to kill you.

Children's cancer wards are full of amazing kids being strong for their families but really suffering on the inside.

They're suffering in ways their families and supporters can see but can't help.

Maybe when you were young, you'd tell your secrets to your teddy bear, like mine named Fish. This is like that but SO. MUCH. MORE. POWERFUL.

Huggable the robot is a teddy bear that supports kids in ways grown-up humans just haven't been able to.

Angelic pediatric cancer nurses, what do YOU think?

MR. HAWKING, YOU WERE RIGHT!

Wait...

So, are robots the end of the human race?

I don't think so. In the form of bots like Huggable, robots are the beginning of something much more positive.

They're the beginning of a whole new era of medical advancements that don't alienate us from each other, but bring us closer by teaching us more about ourselves.

Nurses, family, and support systems are so important to cancer patients. But just like the X-ray helped human doctors treat disease,

a robot like Huggable will help those human doctors treat the very serious emotional and psychological damage caused by cancer.

boop!

This lil' robot named Huggable is good for us humans.

More hospitals and medical providers need to know about the emotional suffering these strong kids are going through.

I'm sharing this in the hopes that some families out there can use this info to get better care for their kids.

transcript:

Boston Children's Hospital Simulator Program Unit-Based Simulation Suite

Huggable: Well, hello. I love your smile. My name is Huggable.

Alberto Cruz: Hi, Huggable.

Huggable: Hello.

Alberto Cruz: This is Aurora.

Huggable: Are you feeling a little shy? That's okay.

Aurora is 10 years old. She has leukemia. She's currently undergoing treatment at Boston Children's Hospital.

Huggable: What else are you going to do today?

Aurora: We have to go to a doctor's appointment.

Huggable: Oh, okay.

Alberto Cruz: For us to get blood work.

Huggable: Oh.

Alberto Cruz: Show him where they take your blood from. You don't have to show him. Just point to it.

Huggable: Does that make it easier?

The huggable robot is being developed by the MIT Media Lab to help relieve children's anxiety during hospital visits.

LUKE PLUMMER Robotics Engineer, Personal Robots Group, MIT Media Lab

Luke Plummer: The cool thing that we do in designing robots is that we start with an animated character, end up with a big head, big eyes,

things that make characters cute to humans. That character design also involves emotions and a certain way that it moves.

So the robot is, from the beginning, mechanically designed to move in a certain way. It has the capability to have capacitive sensing to tell when

and how someone's touching it. It also has like swappable hands. The goal of that is eventually to be able to sense pressure.

Aurora: Touch your nose. What are you going to do about it?

Luke Plummer: As a way to indicate pain, you can measure how hard they're squeezing the robot. Huggable's purpose of existence is

to interact on an emotional level with children.

Aurora: Hey, Huggable. How old are you?

Huggable: I'm only 5.

Aurora: I knew it! I knew he was 5.

Huggable: How did you know?

Aurora: You look about 5. Why are you blue?

Huggable: Everyone in my family is blue except my uncle Tony.

Aurora: Who is...

Huggable: He's orange.

Aurora: Do you know any jokes?

Huggable: You know, I don't know any jokes.

Aurora: You want to hear one?

Huggable: I would love to.

Aurora: What do eggs do for fun?

Huggable: Hm, what do eggs do for fun? I didn't think eggs have fun.

Aurora: They do kara-yolk-y.

Huggable: Oh my goodness! That is so funny.

Aurora: I want one of those at home.

ALBERTO CRUZ Aurora's Dad

Alberto Cruz: The hospital, I think they do a great job. They had so many activities for us to do while we were here.

But the Huggable, the fact that a toy's helping you, it's great for the kids.

SOOYEON JEONG Research Specialist, Personal Robots Group, MIT Media Lab

Sooyeon Jeong: We developed a Huggable app on the smart Android phone and then put it on the phone.

And then phone goes into the face and then we cover it up with a 3D plastic mask and cover everything up with fur.

But because of the smart phone technology, we can actually put everything inside a small compact device and it actually

controls all the motors and detects all the sensor information, so that's how the robot became smaller and more mobile.

You can actually put it right by the bedside.

Huggable: Hey, I saw that. I have an idea.

Aurora: What?

Huggable: Would you like to play a game with me?

Aurora: Okay.

Huggable: I love to play I Spy. Do you want to go first?

Aurora: Okay. I spy with my little eye something that is blue.

Huggable: Me!

Aurora: No.

Huggable: Okay, I'm looking. Is it your dad's jeans?

Aurora: No. Guess again.

Huggable: Hmm.

Aurora: Hmm.

Huggable: Hmm.

Aurora: Hmm.

Huggable: This is tough.

Aurora: Do you want us to give you a hint? It's somewhere over there.

Huggable: Over there? Laurel's shirt.

Aurora: Yes.

Huggable: Oh yay!

Aurora: About time.

Huggable: I spy with my little eye something pink.

Aurora: The heart on my hat?

Huggable: Oh my goodness. You are so good. How did you guess that?

Aurora: I got skills.

LAUREL ANDERSON SUZANNE GARCA Child Life Specialists, Boston Children's Hospital

Suzanne Garca: Using social robotics in this environment, at first it was like, oh, how is this going to work?

Laurel Anderson: And the other thing was are they going to replace us?

Suzanne Garca: Right. And we learned very quickly that this is just one more tool that we can use to help children make this a less frightening experience.

Huggable: Hey, where'd you go?

Aurora: Peekaboo.

Huggable: Oh my goodness!

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