`Computer carer' to start home trial soon

A kindly, intelligent computer that becomes an extension of your own personality will take care of you as you age, encouraging you to have breakfast by releasing the smell of fresh coffee or reminding you to lock the back door by playing a particular piece of music.

It will get used to your habits and will learn the difference between mishaps and real danger, calling for outside help only when it is really necessary, according to Prof Heinz Wolff of Brunel University. He painted this benign picture of a caring, sharing Big Brother during a session on the human-machine interface at the British Association for the Advancement of Science's annual Festival of Science in London. He received £1.2 million sterling in funding to develop a computerised carer and expects to have a prototype system installed in a home within a month. Some health authorities were interested in the work, he said and were willing to invest in further pilot sites if the computerised Big Brother approach worked.

The "Millennium Home" could just as well be called a caring or a smart home, he said. "It will use conventional technology, nothing new has to be invented." The resident wouldn't have to do anything, as existing sensor technology would keep tabs on what was happening inside the home.

The need for a home with a conscience arose because of how society has changed. "I think we have got ourselves into a really difficult position as far as society is concerned," he said. Women had made great advances but this had reduced their availability as carers and "men have not come forward to plug that hole".

His Millennium Home, complete with a nanny computer that could cope with moods and boldness, is an example of how technology could replace the caring that was formerly supplied by selfless family, friends and neighbours.

It could best serve the independent elderly who needed that little bit of help to keep them safe, Prof Wolff suggested. Equipped with artificial intelligence, the computer would quickly learn about the occupant's habits, moulding its services to suit.

"It is an extension of your own perception that is being built into the computer," Prof Wolff said. It would be able to "speak" to the occupant, for example encouraging him/ her to get up in the morning or reminding them to take their medicine. Its sensors would detect where the occupant was and could make decisions on the relative dangers involved if it got no response from the person.

It could use sound effects, smells or other aids to memory to make the person remember to do something and could reassure the person that doors and windows were locked at the end of the day. It would also have some sense of the person's own capabilities, Prof Wolff said.

If a fuse blew on a dark evening the computer might suggest that the person just sit down and wait while it called for help from an outside volunteer rather than risk fixing it by themselves. It would then unlock the door when the volunteer arrived. "Innovation in the 21st century will be based on the way that society organises itself rather than on pushing back the (technological) frontiers," he stated.