Every year, the European Commission is organising a pan-European event called “Researcher’s night”. The goal is to invite researchers from all over Europe to showcase their work to the general public. This year’s edition was organised on the 24th of September and it Cluj it took place on the iconic building called ‘Casino’. The Casino is on the heart of the Central park of the city, and it is the place where official ceremonies of the city take place, among other events. This offers the possibility of attracting passbyers to learn about research activities that are taking place in our city.
We decided to participate since our research has a lot of implications on the daily life of the general public, since most of us have someone close by that needs to undergo physical rehabilitation, be it a member of the family or a friend. For explaining our research both to older and younger audience, we prepared a demonstration where the participants could control our robot using just their arms. A depth camera would register the motion of the participant’s arm, and the robot would try to replicate the motion. The camera would detect whether the hand of the participant is open or closed, and it would translate it into a gripping motion. If the participants were able to grasp a candy from a predefined position, then they would go home with their candy on their own hand.
After this simple demonstration we would explain about the use of robots in the rehabilitation environment and their benefits for the standards of living of people who need to undergo rehabilitation. Several people have visited our stand and tried our demonstration and we believe that we made a small step in the direction of explaining our work to the general public.
