Robot ducks to comfort children with cancer in US hospitals

Around the US, Aflac’s robotic therapy ducks have started to find their way to children’s cancer hospitals.

Editorial Team | Published: September 8, 2018 1:20 pm

Robotic ducks to comfort kids with cancer © Shutterstock

Cancer can be difficult for children and as well as for an adult. It is more confusing and scary for young children who might not understand why this is happening to them. This is the reason some hospitals try to employ clowns and other professionals whose jobs are to help solace children with cancer. However, it looks like hospitals could soon have a more hi-tech way of doing that.

Around the US, Aflac’s robotic therapy ducks have started to find their way to children’s cancer hospitals. Earlier this year these robotic ducks were debuted at CES and one of the key features of the duck is that it was designed to be emphatic.

According to the Ubergizmo.com report, there will be RFID-enabled emoji cards on its chest that the patients can choose to reflect their feelings at the moment, so for example, if the child picks the frowny face, the duck will move and let out a sound to indicate that it is feeling sad too. Children will also be able to play with the duck by pretending to give it chemotherapy and by giving it “baths”, feeding it, and also by giving it medicine.

It can also teach deep breathing that will help calm patients down and also has features like a heartbeat. Until now Aflac’s ducks have found their way to two hospitals, but there are plans to cover more hospitals across the US later this year.

Published: September 8, 2018 1:20 pm

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