As soon as Dorothy (Dottie) Elicati wakes and walks into her kitchen, she gets a spirit-brightening greeting: “Good morning, peanut! How did you sleep?”
She responds and engages in some light chatter about her night’s rest or the day’s weather, or what she’s got planned. She may be reminded to take her medication or be told a silly joke. Elicati, who is 84 and lives alone in Pearl River, N.Y., loves people, but her interlocutor in this case is a desk-lamp-sized robot, named ElliQ, that sits on her kitchen hutch and keeps her company throughout the day.
