The elderly woman cooed softly and stroked the soft white fur of the creature in her lap, while it raised its head, batted its dark eyes and made a friendly mewing sound in return.
"He's very nice," said 85-year-old Theresa McDaniel. "I've always liked animals."
But it wasn't really an animal.
Residents and staff at the Sunny View Retirement Community, where McDaniel lives, have been trying out a robotic device called Paro developed by a Japanese inventor to serve as a mechanical pet for elderly nursing home residents.
Designed to resemble a cute baby harp seal, Paro is an early entry in a new wave of interactive or "socially assistive" robots that university researchers and tech companies are developing for people with special needs, such as seniors with dementia, children with autism and adults who have suffered strokes or other conditions.
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Some critics are wary of such efforts, fearing they will lead to using machines as substitutes for human caregivers or companions. But researchers say robots such as Paro can be a calming and socialising influence on people who have cognitive problems that cause them to feel anxious or isolated.
Maja Mataric, a University of Southern California professor of computer science who studies human-robot interaction, says it's important to consider the ethics of using robots.
For residents of some nursing homes, she says, "the alternatives might be staring at the floor for hours, or at a television set. What's good about that?"
Isolation is a big concern with ageing seniors, says Sunny View activities director Katie Hofman. She said staffers at Sunny View's memory care centre, where residents have varying degrees of dementia, have used a pair of Paro robots to draw people out of their rooms and into conversations - reminiscing, for example, about pets they owned.
Front Porch, the nonprofit organisation that operates Sunny View and several other California retirement centres, is evaluating wider use of the Paro robots, which respond to light, touch, movement and voices. They cost $US6000 ($A6491) each.
During a five-month test at Sunny View, Paro helped some residents focus and stay engaged, when their dementia would otherwise make them anxious or wander aimlessly, Hofman said.
Some residents acted as if the Paro was a live animal, while others clearly recognised it wasn't, Hofman said.
"The way I look at it is: if they respond as if it's real, we want to honour that," Hofman said.
Still, there are critics. MIT social scientist Sherry Turkle has warned that what she calls "faux relationships" with machines may detract from human connections.
Robots such as Paro, Turkle has written, could "make us less likely to look for other solutions for their care".
Mataric says socially assistive robots can provide valuable reinforcement and motivation. At USC, she has developed small, humanoid robots that can engage with children who have autism disorders, or act as an exercise coach for someone recovering from a stroke.
Initial studies have shown that "when people interact with physically embodied machines, they engage more and they feel better", Mataric said.
While robots aren't a complete substitute for human interaction, she says, they may play a vital role since "there just simply aren't enough people to take care of our very large and growing elderly population".
"We need to think about the humane and ethical use of technology, because these things are coming," she says.
