The idea of sticking their parents in a nursing home weighs heavily on many Baby Boomers. Martin Spencer has a solution: robots.

“Many people quit good-paying jobs to keep their beloved mother or father out of the horrors of a nursing home,” says Spencer, who created the CareBot, a 4-foot, 100-pound, robot with a screen for a face and wheels for legs that reminds owners to take their medication.

If necessary, the CareBot calls emergency contacts and dials 911 and is fitted with a webcam to allow purchasers the ability to monitor and have video chats with their elderly relatives from anywhere.

Spencer says the CareBot should be available next fall for between $12,000 and $15,000 – a price point he says should alleviate pressure on family budgets by paring down the “hidden costs” of the aging crisis.

“They won’t accept isolation,” says University of Toronto Professor Mark Chignell (MIE) of the Baby Boomer generation. Professor Chignell studies how humans interact with technology. CareBot’s video-chatting function may help to overcome social isolation, a common problem among seniors, he says.

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