(VNF) - Vu Duy Thuc, an alumnus of Stanford University, has been in the spotlight of US media since his introduction of Ohmni - a robot catered for the elderly’s need.

Vu Duy Thuc is a popular name in the Vietnamese community in US, owing to his success in both academic work and startup endeavor.

Graduating from the renowned Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania with excellent grade point average of 4/4 and an Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers Award from the Computing Research Association, Thuc easily got full scholarship to study doctorate program at the prestigious Stanford University. During those years, he also reaped his first fruit in business as founder of Kantago – the tech startup which was later bought by Google in 2011.

Vu Duy Thuc at a sharing session on his startup from Silicon Valley (source: dantri)

He was also founder and co-founder of 7 startups, including: Umbala, Tappy and Knightscope.

Recently, Thuc’s latest hi-tech product has brought him to be in the spotlight.

His journey with this breakthrough was triggered by a real issue in the American society, as 70 percent of the country’s elderly population (aged above 65) had to struggle with a lonely life.

“There’s a huge senior population, but isolation and loneliness is still common,” he told U.S. daily New York Times. “And we’re also running out of caregivers, since most of them are getting older.”

Thuc deeply empathize with the elderly’s situation as he had struggled with loneliness as an overseas student in US before. He immediately spent time pondering over a medium of communication customized for old people, helping them keep in touch with families, friends and relatives from the distance. And it was how he came up with the Ohmni robot.

Ohmni, developed by Thuc’s co-founded startup OhmniLabs, was delicately tailored to fit with the need of his target customers – the elderly. It is a user-friendly device, weighing light and can be run with only basic knowledge of computer.

“Devices and applications such as smartphone, laptop, Skype and FaceTime have their limitations,” Thuc noted the difference between his companion robot Ohmni and other available long-distance real-time communication methods.

Ohmni robot, designed with a screen on its top and a webcam, is enabled to move around on wheels, allowing users to make phone calls even when they are busy with daily activities.

Ohmni robot is a user-friendly communication app for the elderly (source: abc7news.com)

The distinctive feature of the robot is “It’s connected to Wi-Fi and can be operated remotely by the person on the other end of the call,” Thuc explained. “Senior users are spared from even such physical operations as turning it on and off or recharging the robot.”

Trial version of Ohmni was launched six months ago to test the response of the market. This year, OhmniLabs robots will be used by Home Care Assistance - a healthcare firm in US, to take care of the retirement communities and people aging in place. The yearly cost is about 20 percent of the cost, on average, of hiring full-time caregivers, according to chief executive of Home Care Assistance.

Earlier, Ohmni’s capability was proved practical by timely connecting a severely ill woman with her child from the distance. The woman’s life was saved then as she was taken to the hospital promptly.

At the moment, Thuc is trying his best to officially bring Ohmni robot to the markets of US and Japan. The price of the product, which is scheduled to be on sale in the next few months, ranges between US$1,500 - 2,000.

In the near future, Thuc’s team will focus on shaping the robot’s skills in basic chores including picking up objects, washing dishes, doing laundry and cleaning house.

“I also hope to introduce the product to Vietnam some time soon, especially robots integrated with remote health checkup capability to help those living in remote areas where medical facilities are less developed,” Thuc said.

The young CEO also shared, his path to the initial success with OhmniLabs had not always been smooth sailing, as he and his colleagues had experienced countless failures.

Nevertheless, with an optimististic mindset, Thuc took each failure as a lesson, and unwaveringly keep chasing his dream of creating innovation and breakthrough./.

Compiled ( Phi Yen )