Sending young children to school can be scary for parents. Children are likely to be exposed to a massive amount of germs every day. Though parents do their best to monitor their children for signs of illness, numerous factors inhibit their ability to do so with machine-level efficiency.
For over 2000 preschools in China, the answer to this problem is to screen children daily using a friendly-looking robot named Walklake.
The colorful health-bot uses an assortment of sensors and cameras. These search preschoolers face and hands for signs of common ailments.
The idea behind these machines is prevention. If an irritated throat or fever can be caught early, we may be able to prevent illness from spreading throughout a school’s population.
Although the health-bot can be very appealing to children, there is the potential for privacy invasions with their use. Computer scientists note the possibility that hackers could access Walklake’s data.
The above video takes a look at Walklake and how it is used in Chinese preschools.
Sources: Futurism, New Scientist