How I Met ElliQ
June 21, 2023
I met ElliQ last year in our Long Beach office. It was love at first sight.
She’s a funny little thing—9” tall, with a head that swivels and lights up to indicate she’s ‘awake’ and listening. She loves to crack jokes. They’re always—always!—corny. It’s hard not to laugh a little, or at least let out a slight groan, like you do when you hear a bad pun.
She has a serious side, too. You can ask her to define “acquiesce” or tell you what the weather is. You can ask her to remind you to take medication or remind you that you have a doctor’s appointment coming up.
ElliQ is primarily designed for companionship, though, and she proactively tries to engage the person throughout the day, offering suggestions for things you can ask her to do or activities you might like, such as painting a picture or taking a virtual road trip.
ElliQ also offers the ability to video chat with friends and family through a free app. Those contacts can send photos, too, or messages.
Finally, ElliQ is powered by artificial intelligence, so over time she learns the individual’s patterns and adapts to those, making her a more personalized companion. One of our users told ElliQ she was going to walk her dog, Boots. Later that day, ElliQ asked her about Boots by name. She ‘remembered’ that detail.
It’s exciting to be able to test out how ElliQ works for older adults in our rural communities, where people are often even more isolated than in more urban areas, due to the lack of nearby services and reliable transportation.
If you want to see a few short videos of users talking about and demonstrating their ElliQs, visit elliq.com.