hasbro's robot cat

Bought this item as Xmas gift for my 86-year-old mom-in-law and she loves it. The cat purrs, meows, rolls over, licks its paw, etc. OK, it's $100. But the smiles on Mom's face are worth it.

And...no litter box. Sweet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4orT5NDjn0c

That is so weird.  Does your mother-in-law know it's a fake cat?

I thought about one of these for my Mom, who had advanced dementia, but could not bring myself to do it. It felt like a hoax at her expense, but I can't figure out why.

they know it's not real but it fills the need for a pet with minimal care in the same way as the realistic baby dolls do, in high-care dementia/memory loss caring. Studies have shown (mainly in Asia, where more of these units are used in such residential care programs) that residents are happier and more social with such a pet around, especially when it can move. Wellbeing indicators improve (BP, respiration, etc,  mobility and dexterity, appetite etc)

Also, some of the units can be programmed with emergency numbers so if their human has an incident (falls, is unresponsive), help can be called and the patient kept calm until arrives. There was a recent case where an elderly person was saved by her robot dog; I think she had a stroke and couldn't use her panic alarm but the dog could and also called the son or daughter. 

nan said:

That is so weird.  Does your mother-in-law know it's a fake cat?

Yes, but that doesn't stop her from talking to it, insisting that we acknowledge its presence, etc. It's a hoot.

they have done studies showing less depression with a robot that looked like a seal

they have done studies showing less depression with a robot that looked like a seal