Speaking to a group of journalists last October at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Maja Matarić, PhD, stated the problem bluntly: “There aren’t enough people for people.”
Matarić is a professor of computer science, neuroscience, and pediatrics at the University of Southern California, where she oversees the development of socially assistive robots. These intelligent machines are being designed to help patients with convalescence, rehabilitation, and training through social interactions rather than physical ones.