BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Nighttime patients at Johns Hopkins could see a robot moving in the busy hallways of the hospital’s emergency room.

The 6-foot-tall robot is the center of a new pilot program in which Spanish-language translator Juvenal Reyes operates the machine from his home laptop, moving the monitor that displays his face and navigating the robot from room to room.

“It feels very much like I am actually there,” Reyes said.

Reyes, who lives in Baltimore City, is on call from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. whenever the hospital staff needs help communicating with Spanish-speaking patients.

Sometimes patients are uncomfortable talking to a robot, but they usually overcome that discomfort once they make eye contact and converse with him, Reyes said

Alex Nason, director of telemedicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine, adapted the robot, which has been in use for about a month, to be used for translation.

“I always think of how technology can be used to overcome barriers, including distance, time, language and location,” he said.

“Having a good translator helps prevent mistakes and misunderstandings,” said Shannon Bechy, charge nurse at the hospital. “It’s so important to get the whole story, not just pieces of it.”

Reyes’ biggest limitation is that the robot doesn’t have hands to press the elevator button when it must go from floor to floor, so he has to wait until someone can help him.

“They are working on a new generation of robot that has appendages,” he said.

lgreenback@baltimoreexaminer.com

Comments from Examiner Readers

11:04 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 14, 2008 re: "Brisbane to gauge baylands wind flow"

Examiner Reader said:
Wind turbines certainly generate clean energy (preferrable), but I wish leaders would allocate some of their design engineers to study how to protect the wildlife (birds) fatalities. It seems easy enough to place a cage around the turbines, just like the smaller, domestic models that protect children from getting their fingers clipped by the fan blades. I'm sure there's a way to make this look attractive in a super-size turbine.

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11:46 AM MST on Thu., Apr. 10, 2008 re: "Defense, technology firms� needs make Baltimore the place to be for IT positions"

Examiner Reader said:
The Dice Report. �Baltimore-Washington has the third-highest average salary for IT professionals at $81,750 a year, ahead of the national average of $74,570.� WOW and yet the jobs which I applied for are paying way below the average. Usually a company asked what salary range I'm looking for, and usually that's a sign of we can't afford you. I answered negotiable, they pursuit for a number. When I give them a number I don't hear from them. Most of the positions I come across are bombarded with responsibilities and has a failure of matching the pay.

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11:07 AM MST on Mon., Mar. 24, 2008 re: "U.Md. study shows MBAs lead to higher salaries in IT sector"

Terence said:
What the article failed to address is that if you have an a non-business major and have an engineering or computer science degree, it is advisable to pursue an MBA degree and as such you would tend to pursue something like an IT degree and in that case, the jump in salary is significant. If you have a business undergrad in IT and pursue an MBA, that jump is significantly less. I still do not understand why students would do both an undergrad and grad in business. Really the textbooks are almost the same, the delivery is the difference. In some cases, classes are cross-taught at both the undergrad and grad. Pursuing a masters of science in marketing, operations and IT is the appropriate route not an MBA for undegrad in business. Just IMHO

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7:34 AM MST on Thu., Mar. 13, 2008 re: "Businesses, educators agree they must unite to address tech job shortage"

Iconic Xer. said:
I find this story missing a critical and informative element. Sure, tech companies and institutions such as NASA may be losing *employees* to retirement. But that doesn't mean there aren't *lots* of tech professionals around. Quite the opposite. There's an abundance of them. Companies have got to change their cultures, compensation and engagement of workers to be in alignment with the preference of many tech professionals to work outside of organizations, to work for multiple companies, to be flexible, nimble and not dependent on one industry or company for survival. It's a generational thing, really, with your GenXers (27-47 in 2008) heavily leaning in this direction. Re: the lack of kids entering STEM. It has nothing to do with them not wanting to be cool. They are achievement, affluence and team-oriented. Sing their song and they'll come in droves. Sing *your* song & they won't hear you ... or even bother trying. And, mistakenly, you'll conclude they're not interested. What

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10:17 AM MST on Fri., May. 11, 2007 re: "Schools to lease land for phone towers"

Examiner Reader said:
Possible health risk of cancer too! See international studies.

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9:26 AM MST on Fri., May. 11, 2007 re: "Schools to lease land for phone towers"

Examiner Reader said:
You can't stop it now and usually there is a reason its done that way

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