BehindTheMedspeak: Last Minute Robot — End of Life Care Machine

From LikeCool: "The Last Minute Robot consists of a padded caressing arm and a mechanical recorded voice designed to guide and comfort dying patients with a carefully scripted message. It was created by Dan Chen, an artist, designer, and engineer who just graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with an MFA in Digital + Media. He built the machine as one of a series of functional robots capable of reenacting human social behaviors."

"The device is activated and an LED screen reads 'Detecting end of life.' At this point, the doctor exits the room, leaving the patient alone by him or herself. Within moments the LED reads 'End of life detected' and the robotic arm begins its caressing action, moving back and forth, stimulating the sense of comfort during the dying process. Simultaneously, the robot annunciates the patient's name using a script, while stroking the patient through death."

Sounds good to me: I'll take one.

One thing, though: Is there battery backup for end of days?

[via TC_Chu's Point and Geekologie]