New technology brings THON to kids at the hospital | WTAJ

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WTAJ) — THON is all about the kids while many are here to take in the spectacle of it all some kids are going through treatment, or have compromised immune systems which means they can’t be around a lot of people.

In the past, they could watch a live-stream of THON from the Penn State Hershey Medical Center

But this year, they plan to make the experience more immersive for kids back at the hospital.

Robots that wheel around on the dance floor will show kids a live scene from a first-person perspective.

The kid’s faces are on the robot, and back at the hospital, they can see everything through a laptop.

This system was created by THON’S tech committee, who earlier today told WTAJ how it works.

“They’re sort of like iPad on a segway looking things when kids in Hershey get on their laptops it’s like a two-way face-time or skype call that they can just drive around so we’re going to put a few of those robots on the floor and the kids are going to be able to interact with everyone down there during the weekend,” said Dan Herlihy: THON Technology Director.