Move aside Superman, there’s a new hero in town.
Ludwig’s a robot who looks like a boy and can certainly hold his own in conversation, but there’s more to him than just that. He can actually track and assess the progression of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease through facial and speech patterns.
“[Ludwig can track] even things like the time gap between verbs, or the use of verbs, or lack of verbs, the time gap between sentences, between words in sentences,” says One Kenton Place’s Executive Director, Isaac Weinroth. “You might need to adjust medication or even day-to-day activities. If somebody is showing weaknesses in one area, you can focus on that area to try and strengthen it.”
Since Ludwig will be used in a retirement home this fall, he’ll be interacting with seniors while watching for the development of dementia, Alzheimer’s and even depression.
“Right now, there’s about 600,000 people in Canada with the disease. That will go up to about 1.5 million in the next few decades. And there aren’t enough people to look after all of these individuals,” explained a scientist from the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. Rather than replacing human doctors and nurses, Ludwig’s going “to take away some of the burden for those individuals and current nurses and doctors to focus on what they normally do.”
Ludwig’s current model costs $3,000, but it’s predicted that the next model will only cost around $200-$300, so he’ll be affordable to even have in a private home.
To see Ludwig in action, check out the video above.