A robotic rabbit plush toy called Mía can recognize the people it interacts with by their voice alone.
Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, or UC3M, in Spain developed the prototype, which is being tested in Madrid City Council day centers for the personalized affective stimulation of elderly people with cognitive decline.
Scientists said it could help older people cope with stress and loneliness and also work as an entertaining toy for children.
The research team said one of the biggest challenges in current social robotics is getting machines to interact with people in a natural and personalized way. One way to do that is for the robot to know whom it is talking to.
The voice recognition system described in the journal Applied Sciences operates onboard Mía.
Study co-author Professor José Carlos Castillo Montoya said, “We use this robot for affective stimulation for the elderly with cognitive decline, and user recognition is an important step toward the robot having a personalized behavior adapted to the needs of each individual.”
Unlike traditional recognition systems that rely on cameras and image processing, the new system only uses the robot’s built-in microphone.
Castillo Montoya said, “It operates locally and incrementally, which offers two advantages. On one hand, greater privacy, as the voiceprints never leave the physical device itself. On the other hand, a sort of on-the-fly learning.”
Co-author Arecia Segura Bencomo, from UC3M’s Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, said, “The robot does not need a setup phase to learn your voice. It hears you speak for the first time and automatically generates a profile.”
Researchers said the advance implemented in Mía falls within animal robotics.
Castillo Montoya called it a “therapeutic paradigm” designed to transfer the proven benefits of therapy with real animals, such as reducing stress and anxiety, to controlled environments where animal welfare or a patient’s capacity for care limits their use.
He said, “In the specific case of the elderly with cognitive decline, the robot activates the need to care for something. We have verified in pilot tests at Madrid City Council day centers that, in addition to improving the elderly person’s mood, the robot acts as a social catalyst. It breaks isolation, mitigates unwanted loneliness, and encourages users to start interacting more with each other.”
Castillo Montoya said the system works by analyzing the nuances and patterns of the acoustic signal each time someone speaks to the robot to create a unique “voice signature.”
He said, “Our proposal is simple because the robot’s computing capacities are very limited. The algorithm generates a sort of map and, using open-source code that we have improved in our laboratory, groups together signatures that resemble each other. Ultimately, each group corresponds to a specific user.”
He also said the system can handle unforeseen situations in real time. If it interacts with an unknown person, the AI detects that the voice signature does not fit any previous group. If the interaction continues, it can generate a new dynamic profile and learn that it is a new user.
In experimental tests, the software achieved a high success rate in identifying known users.
Castillo Montoya said, “We want the robot to be able to adapt by reacting differently depending on who is in front of it. If it detects a specific user who tends to be more restless, specific mechanisms and behaviors aimed at calming that person will be automatically activated.”
The research team has several operational prototypes of Mía and is continuing to develop the technology in real clinical scenarios. It is also seeking alliances with companies interested in bringing the assistive platforms to the general market.
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