After the job interviews at Ikea and the job as a caregiver, now comes the 'counselor': Nao, one of the first social robots, was very successful in motivating those who wanted to change behaviors and lifestyles. But in addition to helping man in his duties, robots are also increasingly skilled in the game. After poker and Go, the last frontier is that of three of a kind, but with the noble purpose of helping in rehabilitation. The two findings are described in the Journal of medical internet research and the Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience journal, respectively. Researchers from the University of Plymouth wanted to test Nao as a consultant in motivational interviews, that is, the type of counseling interview that is done to help the person change behavior. The results were more than positive: the volunteers praised him, evaluating the interviews with him as useful and pleasant, and appreciating his non-judgment. So much so that in one case he was even preferred to the human consultant. In fact, he managed to encourage those who wanted to do more physical activity to express their goals and doubts aloud, coming up with ideas and stimulating conversation on how to achieve this goal. āThanks to their not being perceived as critics and moralists - explains Jackie Andrade, coordinator of the project - robots are more effective than humanoid avatars in giving this type of supportā. On the gaming front, on the other hand, after the successes of artificial intelligence in chess, Go and poker, robots have also shown that they know how to try their hand at simpler trio, but with a less playful purpose: to help people in rehabilitation. At the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, on the other hand, Israeli researchers made a robotic arm work with people who had to recover the use of the arm. Instead of a blank sheet of paper, "the game was played using cups to put on shelves, in order to stimulate arm work," says Shelly Levy-Tzedek, study coordinator. āA person can collect and put many cups while playing against a robotic arm, thus improving their performance in various daily activities,ā he continues. Again, working with a robot was more challenging, fun and interesting than playing on the shelves themselves, but against a system of LED lights that lit up to dictate moves, whether people were younger or older.
