Robots Help Seniors Learn to Use Technology in South Korea

United Press International reports that a new program in Seoul, South Korea, employs robots to teach 3,000 participating seniors to use smartphones and touchscreen kiosks, in an attempt to close the digital divide between younger and older generations. Ten seniors recently engaged with the Torooc startup's Liku robot at the West Seoul Senior Welfare Center. Liku used voice instructions, gestures, and a modified smartphone to teach participants how to use the KakaoTalk messaging application. The humanoid robot is linked to a central server and can answer about 200 conversational questions, and supply information like the current weather. Liku features digital eyes and interacts through facial recognition and voice responses. Shin Eun-kyong with the Seoul Digital Foundation said, "We . . . think robots have some advantages over teaching with humans face to face. It can be tiring to go over the same things over and over, but a robot can repeat the instructions until the seniors understand."