Hospitalized kids use robots in class

By JIM FITZGERALD

updated 7:35 p.m. ET June 2, 2006

VALHALLA, N.Y. - Lying in his hospital room, on a mattress designed to protect his fragile skin, 13-year-old Achim Nurse poked his bandaged fingers at an orange button on what looked like a souped-up video game console.

Half a second later, in a social studies class discussing the Erie Canal, a 5-foot-tall steel-blue robot raised its hand.

"You have a question, Achim?" said the teacher.

Achim is using a pair of robots — one, called "Mr. Spike," at his bedside, and its mate, "Mrs. Candy," in the classroom — to keep up with his schoolwork and his friends for the months he will be bedridden at Blythedale Children's Hospital in Valhalla, just north of New York City.

The robot in the classroom, which displays a live picture of Achim, provides what its inventors call "telepresence": It gives the boy an actual presence in the classroom, recognized by teachers and classmates. It can move from class to class on its four-wheel base and even stop at the lockers for a between-periods chat.

"The robot literally is embraced by students in the classroom as though that is the medically fragile student," said Andrew Summa, national director of the robot project, which is in use at six other hospitals around the country. Achim's teacher, Bob Langerfield, said his other students had become used to the robot — and were treating it as if it were Achim — after just a few days.

The program, called PEBBLES (for Providing Education By Bringing Learning Environments to Students), has great potential for expansion, supporters say. It could keep suspended students connected to their classrooms, for example, or even help young prisoners. Summa says it also has promise as a tool in treating autism because it gives the patient control of the social environment.

"I don't know where it's going to go next, but it does have considerable potential," Summa said.

The robots work in pairs. The one at Achim's bedside displayed a live picture of the social studies classroom. Achim could see Langerfield, his desk, the board, a map of the United States and the clock. He could hear Langerfield saying, "From 1830 to 1860 New York City grew at an astounding rate."

The second robot was in the back of the classroom, its "face" (and autofocus camera) aimed at the teacher. Its display showed Achim in his bed.

"If he's looking out the window, the teacher will know it," said Jim Desimone, who is the traumatic brain injury coordinator at Blythedale and the school's "robot guy."

Using the buttons and a joystick on the control box, Achim could zoom in to read what was on the board; swivel the robot's head to see and talk to a classmate; raise the robot's hand; adjust the volume; or log out, if a nurse came to take him away for tests or physical therapy.

At one point, when the teacher wanted Achim to see something printed on a piece of paper, he held it up to the classroom robot's "face."

The robots also have scanners and printers so the patient can receive whatever the teacher is handing out in class _ a fact sheet, a homework assignment, a test.

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