Haiti: A dad creates a great robot to help his son

A Haitian father has created a clever robot to help his son, who is selectively mutated, to speak and to open up to others.

Source: Jean Max Dumont/ France 24

Jean-Max Dumond, 32, is the father of Davensky, a three-year-old boy with selective mutism who prevents him from speaking properly and opening up socially. Inhabitants of Port-au-Prince in Haiti this father decided to create a robot from - almost - nothing; parts recovered from electronic devices such as televisions, radios. He uses paper mache to decorate the face of the robot and PVC to create different parts of the body. A speaker is installed inside, connected in Bluetooth and has been programmed thanks to the Google Now sound bank.

 

Jean-Max Dumond is a graphic designer and never studied robotics before - there is none in Haiti - so he managed to create a robot by himself and it costed about 52 euros.

@ Jean Max Dumond/ France 24 Source: Jean Max Dumont/ France 24

"I wanted to make this robot first because of the situation of my son: he is 3 years old and speaks very little, he does not speak, even at school it is difficult to snatch him a few words ... He tended to respond with gestures rather than words, but we do not have the means to take him to see a specialist, so it's not possible for us to diagnose him, "said Jean- Max Dumond according to France 24.

 

"I had noticed that he had a tendency to speak with Google's voice recognition tool, I'm passionate about new technologies and robotics, so I set out to create a robot with which he could interact ... took me two months to make it. "

"Two other families contacted me because their children also have problems expressing themselves.I am unfortunately not an early childhood doctor, and therefore I am not able to create robots adapted to the needs of their children. ... but what is certain is that there are needs here in Haiti because specialists are expensive [a speech therapist costs an average of thirty euros per hour in Port-au-Prince, and there are little specialists. "

 

In Haiti, we speak French but we also - and mostly - speak Creole. Jean-Max Dumond regrets that the sound bank of Google Now does not yet offer this language. He would also like to build more efficient robots, serving society. A robot that has largely helped his son to open up to others and intellectually.

 

"I see a lot of improvement in my son, we use the robot to ask him questions, and encourage him to answer. For us, it is very clear that he has made progress, and speaks much more with humans since he has this robot It's hard to really evaluate what it's changed for him, but he's less introverted than before. "

@ Jean Max Dumond/Nofi.fr Source: @Jean Max Dumond/ Nofi.fr