In an attempt to prevent future similar deaths, the provincial government has signed a cooperation agreement with South Korea’s top telecom service operator KT to pilot AI-based care robots.
Managed by South Korea’s Health and Welfare Ministry, the program is slated to run from March this year until October next year and involves 10 AI care robots that have been deployed to Cheongyang County, just south of the capital Seoul.
The robots analyze people’s voices and movements. If a robot detects abnormal activities, it will notify health care centers and guardians during the day and the KT control tower at night.
The robot also offers personalized services, such as giving quizzes for dementia prevention and playing relaxing music. Other potential digital treatments include games and virtual reality.
The project may be expanded to other regions with high suicide rates after evaluating its effectiveness.
According to reports, the South Korean government has planned to invest over $25 million in a research program developing digital treatments for depression after seeing the number of citizens dealing with the condition rise during post-COVID-19 from around 800,000 cases in 2019.
Source: Medindia
