Applications

A child with learning difficulties is supported by a team in which her remedial teacher, an educational therapist and a Nao robot collaborate. Together they design a targeted learning programme, monitors progress, and provide encouragement. The robot combines expertise from the humans with its own observations, and advises on possible adjusments of the programme. Interacting with the Nao robot helps the child to stay concentrated and have fun for a longer time, for which the human experts lack time and perseverance (click here for an early example of our work).

A scientist in a pharmaceutical company is testing a compound for an inhibitory effect on neurodegeneration. Overwhelmed by the enormous amounts of available online data, she turns to the lab’s virtual agent. It searches through dozens of databases, scans the literature, sends emails to authors of relevant papers avoiding scientists working for competing companies, and consults the HI system of the sister lab in China. The scientist and her HI agent analyse the findings and conclude that the compound has been investigated before, and failed to show the required inhibitory activity. Thanks to HI, this took a day, not weeks (click here for an early example of our work).

A teenage leukemia patient is accompanied 24/7 by a robot dog during her prolonged stays in hospital. A large medical team collaborates with this HI agent to answer the patient’s questions. Simple ones, e.g., on diet and daily schedule are autonomously answered by the dog. More complex medical questions are routed to medical staff, according to their medical discipline, available knowledge, and rapport with the patient. The dog explains the inevitable medical terminology, remembering what has been explained before. It monitors the teenager’s mood and advises the specialists on the patient’s psychological wellbeing (click here for an early example of our work).