The situation of loneliness of the elderly is well known throughout the world. There are hundreds of millions of people and this figure increases every year, but their situation of loneliness does not improve. That is why all the actions that are done to improve these situations are more than welcome.
And for many years, robots have been used to help people in this type of situation. It started in Japan and now it is an increasingly widespread activity throughout the world.
I have read that the State of New York ( USA ) is going to distribute companion robots to more than 800 people, so that they can offer them work as assistants and something else: help them contact their relatives, remind them of their medication, answer many of their questions etc... in short, having "someone" close to them so that they feel less alone, and more supported.
There are many robots of this type around the world, but in NY they have decided on an Israeli robot called ElliQ , which does not have a humanoid appearance, is placed on a table and is made up of two parts, as can be seen in the photo below .
One part is like a lamp with a microphone and speaker, which get oriented towards the person with whom you are speaking, to improve the feeling of communication. And the other part is a screen similar to a tablet, where you can see photos, videos, video-conferences, etc… and you can interact with it by touching it with your finger.
It is a very simple system that can be used by people with no technical training, to provide them with intuitive answers through voice and screen.
The system does not seem very expensive either, and could be extended to many more people. But a robot is a machine that can help but not replace people.
As humans, we need the contact and affection of other humans, and that cannot be replaced exclusively by a machine. All help is welcome, as is the case with these robots, but we cannot leave our elders abandoned.
Which is not an obstacle to recognize that robots have a huge field of growth to be introduced into our homes for many different reasons. But always keeping our privacy above all else.
EN 
ES_ES 