By Sarah Wallace

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Melfort school uses robot for new pilot project

Mar 23, 2014 | 4:27 PM

It’s a sign of the technological times and the Maude Burke School in Melfort is benefitting.

TinyEYE Therapy Services is an innovative company that delivers speech therapy through services online. 

Last month they launched another pilot project at the Melfort School to test their new technology, a telepresent robot.

The robot is a partnership between TinyEYE and a California-based robotics company.

Ryan Lockwood, a founding partner of Hulo Fims and a publicist and communications service provider for TinyEYE, worked with company when they first launched their services 10-years ago.

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“Melfort is one of TinyEYE’s first and longest running customers. They had a lot of issues getting speech language therapists into Melfort over the years, like actual physical bodies, and they were involved in the initial pilot when TinyEYE launched almost 10 years ago and they’ve been involved ever since,” Lockwood said. 

He said the day they brought the robot to Melfort last month was a trial run.

“The process of delivering health care and therapy services over the internet is called telepractice. So telepractice is the integration of telecommunications into therapy or health.”

He said there are a number of ways this is put into place, like doctors performing some medical procedures while being in a different location.

“So there’s all kinds of telepractice. Now traditionally telepractice happens between one site and another site and those sites don’t move,” Lockwood explained. 

“With TinyEYE traditionally it’s involved a web camera and a computer with some software on it that is one two different computers in two locations. For example, the speech therapist is in Calgary and the student is in Melfort.”

Now they’ve added the ability of movement into the process through the robot.

Lockwood said with the introduction of mobility they can have the robot in a school in rural Saskatchewan with the speech therapist in Calgary.

The therapist is able to log into the robot, which is basically a small Segway with an iPad attached. By using the iPad’s camera in a Skype like interface, the therapist can drive the robot around the school. 

“Of course everybody in the school sees the speech therapist because his face is on the screen,” Lockwood said.

He said it’s the same kind of robot seen on The Big Bang Theory when Sheldon used a virtual presence device.

Lockwood said the kids “went bonkers” for the robot and had a lot of fun.

“When you introduce this robot or mobility into telepractice it creates a whole new dynamic because now the speech therapist, who used to have to wait for the kid to come to the computer station, which has all kinds of issues of kids being late or forgetting, now the speech therapist can log into the robot and drive around to the classrooms [to get the kid],” he explained.

He said telepresence is becoming more and more popular for companies where people telecommute.

He said the robot really engages the students. “The benefit of what this will do in the future is a lot of times these speech therapists have never been to the school because the schools are remote. So there is a benefit to the speech therapist because they can provide better therapy. Because they see the environment the children are working in, they can see the challenges and relate and communicate more dynamically.”

He said the children are more engaged in their therapy and can concentrate on their speech skills more effectively.

“At a certain point in your life when you have speech issues, if you get the help you need, it makes all the difference in the world.”

TinyEYE is introducing more mobility because they can deliver better service and have a greater impact on students. 

Right now the robot is being used in a school in North Dakota but Lockwood said they hope to be in more schools in the coming years.

“You watch the video and you’ll see the kids so excited and so engaged, just immersed in this experience and want to be a part of it. So much of education is not just about attention span it’s about engagement and when they are engaged they learn. That’s what this is all about.” 

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow