Also a reply on hacker news is not the place for me to go into a complete peer review of this research. I am merely pointing out that they are promoting essentially a toy and the hospital is funded mainly by a toy company.
Also, no, I don't think that this research is necessarily a waste, but I would caution people from thinking this solves anything meaningful, and also would caution people from using this technology in lieu of real human interaction.
It is a novelty, a fun toy. My cynicism comes from seeing people trying to automate human interaction in seemingly every facet of life. My point is not everything has a technical solution, and beyond a small research project I could see larger scale versions of this being detrimental to patients since it will be used in lieu of other non-technical solutions.
Also a reply on hacker news is not the place for me to go into a complete peer review of this research. I am merely pointing out that they are promoting essentially a toy and the hospital is funded mainly by a toy company.
Also, no, I don't think that this research is necessarily a waste, but I would caution people from thinking this solves anything meaningful, and also would caution people from using this technology in lieu of real human interaction.
It is a novelty, a fun toy. My cynicism comes from seeing people trying to automate human interaction in seemingly every facet of life. My point is not everything has a technical solution, and beyond a small research project I could see larger scale versions of this being detrimental to patients since it will be used in lieu of other non-technical solutions.