Ik ben Alice

Elderly Mrs Remkes looks into the camera. We hear a robotic female voice asking questions in Dutch; Mrs Remkes starts talking. The robotic voice comes from Alice, a 60-centimeter-tall robot with a humanoid face and a (not particularly good) camera behind her eyes. People are scared of big robots, a member of the Selemca research group (at Amsterdam’s Free University) explains later. But the aged test subject remains hesitant: ‘I’d prefer a real person.’ ‘Oh, that’s a shame’, Alice replies – thanks to some clever voice-recognition software.
Not much later, Mrs Remkes is babbling away to Alice, who is regularly brought to her (Alice can’t walk). And to Mrs Schellekens-Blanke and to Mrs Van Wittmarschen. The three OAPs seem to have got used to these caredroids (social care robots) made by the American firm Hanson Robotics. Researchers analyse Alice’s camera recordings and discuss with carers – who wonder whether this is what the future holds.