在疗养院，会说话的机器人可以用来对抗孤独和促进心理健康

Talking robots that interact with older people could be introduced into care homes to help fight loneliness and mental ill health.

与老年人互动的会说话的机器人可能被引入养老院，以帮助对抗孤独和心理疾病。

Pepper, a "culturally competent robot," was tested on care home residents in Britain and Japan -- those who interacted with it for up to 18 hours over the course of two weeks "saw a significant improvement in their mental health," researchers found.

研究人员发现，Pepper是一种“有文化能力的机器人”，在英国和日本的疗养院居民身上进行了测试，那些在两周内与它互动长达18小时的人，“他们的心理健康状况得到了显著改善”。

Pepper was part of a large global study known as CARESSES, jointly funded by the European Union and the Japanese government, which investigated the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in caring for the elderly.

Pepper是一项名为“CARESSES”的全球大型研究的一部分，该研究由欧盟和日本政府共同资助，旨在调查人工智能(AI)在照顾老人方面的应用。

The scientists behind the study also found that "after two weeks of using the system there was a small but positive impact on loneliness severity among users."

参与这项研究的科学家还发现，“使用该系统两周后，使用者的孤独感严重程度得到了小的但积极的影响。”

Pepper is fully autonomous, meaning that it is not controlled by a person. The gadget, which features a tablet computer that can play music and entertainment, does not just ask and answer questions but can actually engage in and sustain conversation.

Pepper是完全自动的，这意味着它不受人控制。这款小玩意有平板电脑的特点，可以播放音乐和娱乐，不仅可以提问和回答问题，还可以真正参与并维持对话。

It has been designed to be "culturally competent," meaning that it can respond to the culture-specific needs and preferences of older people.

它被设计成“具有文化能力”，这意味着它可以响应老年人的特定文化需求和偏好。

Dr. Chris Papadopoulos, principal lecturer in public health at the UK's University of Bedfordshire, was the lead author of the evaluation of the three-year project.

英国贝德福德大学公共卫生首席讲师克里斯·帕帕佐普洛斯博士是这项为期三年的项目评估的主要作者。

In an online statement, he described the study as "groundbreaking," adding: "The results show that using the CARESSES artificial intelligence in robots such as Pepper has real potential benefit to a world that is witnessing more people living longer with fewer people to look after them.

在一份在线声明中，他称这项研究是“开创性的”，并补充道:“结果表明，在像Pepper这样的机器人身上使用人工智能CARESSES，对于一个越来越多的人活得更久、照顾他们的人越来越少的世界来说，具有真正的潜在好处。”

"Poor mental health and loneliness are significant health concerns and we have demonstrated that robots can help alleviate these."

“心理健康不良和孤独是严重的健康问题，我们已经证明机器人可以帮助缓解这些问题。”

The University of Bedfordshire, Middlesex University and Advinia Health Care are the UK partners of the study, coordinated by University of Genova in Italy, which developed the robot's AI. Global researchers collaborated on the project with the robotics company SoftBank Robotics.

这项研究的英国合作伙伴是贝德福德大学、米德尔塞克斯大学和阿德维尼亚医疗保健公司，由意大利热那瓦大学协调，后者开发了机器人的人工智能。全球研究人员与机器人公司软银机器人合作开展了该项目。

When they first embarked on the study in 2016, the team could not have foreseen the coronavirus pandemic, which has had a huge impact on elderly people in care homes worldwide.

当他们在2016年开始这项研究的时候，他们没有预见到冠状病毒流行病，它已经对全世界养老院的老年人产生了巨大的影响。

"When we kicked off the project it was clear that loneliness in older adults was a really big problem that is increasing all the time and one that we were keen to tackle," Papadopoulos told CNN. "Social care is incredibly stretched and we have an ageing society."

帕帕佐普洛斯在接受CNN采访时表示:“当我们开始这个项目的时候，很明显，老年人的孤独是一个一直在增加的大问题，也是我们渴望解决的问题。”“社会保障难以置信地捉襟见肘，我们有一个老龄化的社会。”

"Of course we could never have predicted how relevant this issue has become today, where we have enforced isolation in many care homes and selective isolation for many others which has resulted in feelings of loneliness," he said. "Our system really couldn't have come at a better time to try and reduce some of those issues."

他说:“当然，我们从来没有预料到这个问题在今天变得如此重要，我们在许多养老院强制隔离，对其他许多人选择性隔离，这导致了孤独感。”“我们的系统来的真是时候，试图减少一些这样的问题。”