An Irish-made robot has been profiled on the cover of Time, with the magazine describing 'Stevie' as the robot that could change the elder care industry.
Stevie, which uses advanced artificial intelligence, was engineered by a team in Trinity College Dublin to help with the treatment and care of older people in the future.
His work was featured in the iconic publication after he took part in a pilot project in a retirement community in the US.
Stevie's role was to assist care workers with social activities for the residents such as Bingo
But researchers said it soon became clear that what most people enjoyed about Stevie was the social interaction.
The robot has a video screen which displays emotional reactions
It also has about 100 pre-programmed phrases and can answer some questions
Conor McGinn, Assistant Professor at the TCD School of Engineering, who has been working on the robotic project for over a decade, said he had never dreamed it would feature in Time Magazine
He said he was delighted with the reaction it had garnered and that he hoped it would help with the future development of the assisted robotic technology
Stevie now joins the ranks of Leo Varadkar, Liam Neeson and U2, some of the other Irish people to make the cover of Time Magazine.
