Eerily, wordlessly, Eve moved toward me across the auditorium at Lasell College. As she got closer, I feared that she would run into my midsection. Her double, Lucy, was at the back of the hall; at least I would have to deal with only one of them.

Perhaps I could stop Eve by speaking to her. I suggested this to the young woman who was with her. No, the woman explained, this humanoid robot had been programmed to respond to her voice alone.

Eve and Lucy measure some five feet high and have metal skin with pieces bolted to one another. They were visiting from the state of Georgia. The people who drove them to the conference had disassembled them before leaving and then, on arriving, had carefully put them back together.

The spokesman for the company that has developed these pseudo-people believes they will become standard issue in the homes of the future. R. Martin Spencer, CEO of GeckoSystems, Inc., claims that “mobile service robots” will perform many functions and revolutionize elder care. In Japan some nine companies are already developing eldercare robots; in the United States at least four.

Adopting Spencer’s vision, let me predict that a frequent 80th birthday present, 30 years from now, will be an Eve like the one I encountered at the conference. Family members will want their elders to have this electronic helper at hand to assist with medical reminders and household tasks.

Further, I fantasize that cousins of Eve and Lucy will appear in the bridal registries of the future. These creatures will be programmed for such routine duties as housecleaning and serving drinks and meals. In the more distant future, I expect these mechanical servants to become as common at home as computers are nowadays.

Spencer was one of several presenters at a Lasell conference entitled “Growing With The Times: Future Trends in Aging & Technology.” Keynote speaker Joseph Coughlin, founder of the AgeLab at MIT, feels strongly that the potential of the technology already at hand goes far beyond our actual use of it. “Although the technological invention is ready,” he has written, “the business model translating invention into innovation is not.”

It is not enough to focus on telemedicine devices that put us in touch with doctors and other health care providers at a distance, Coughlin maintains. Technology can enrich the lives of older people in many other ways, helping them to develop healthy and fulfilling lifestyles.

Today’s older generation would probably welcome such help; those in the rapidly aging boomer generation will insist on it. These boomers want more opportunities for learning, study, and travel, activities that can be facilitated and enhanced by technology.

Coughlin looks to technology that will make for “a seamless quality of life, regardless of age.” For him, microwaves and garage-door openers are examples of devices that have successfully improved daily life for many people. For those looking toward the future, he emphasizes keeping track of trends and changes in behavior so that technology can respond.

Pierre Larochelle, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology, outlined the recent careers of robots. The first successful one was sold in 1966. It could pick up only 400 pounds, tops. Nowadays, robots only one-fourth the size of the earlier ones can pick up loads weighing tons.

Only recently have robots been directed to consumers, rather than to industrial use. They can now mow lawns, serve as vacuum cleaners, and check on medication-taking. Others, often very small, are now used in surgery and, by a factor of two, have been found to reduce recovery time and blood loss.

A robotic wheelchair developed by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, can go up and down stairs. I have seen it function and admire what it can do for people unable to walk.

“The future is extremely bright,” says Larochelle, who expects great leaps forward in the five years.  

Part of that future is already with us. I have just now discovered how one prominent institution uses innovative technology. Massachusetts General Hospital has had a robot on its staff for the last seven years.

A four-foot mobile service robot named DOC (Delivery on Call) is charged with taking X-ray results from one floor to another, riding the elevator like a real person. It moves on wheels and works from 8 to 4, taking time off at lunch, not for nutritional need but for hospital scheduling.

DOC maneuvers through sensors placed within its skin and uses a computerized map to find his (or her) way. The robot is recharged every night in order to be ready for work the next day. The MGH employee who manages the robot expresses satisfaction with DOC’s performance and speaks of his metal colleague without any suggestion of awe.

Richard Griffin