iCat is my play pal!–A field study with elderly
Social isolation of elderly people is expected to become an increasing problem, in part caused by the ageing of the world population. Loneliness is a common consequence which reduces people‘s quality of life. Robotic products can potentially improve the quality of life of elderly people by supporting them in a wide range of functions, including supporting physical needs, preventing cognitive decline, and fulfilling social needs through companionship. The presented research focuses on stimulating elderly people to be cognitively active through game play and creating a social bond with a robotic user interface as a game buddy. This application is expected to be appealing because it addresses one of the most important values of elderly people, namely experiencing pleasure. However, robotic products can only benefit elderly if they will accept and use these products in their daily lives. To investigate the long-term interaction pattern of elderly a field study was conducted in which a robotic user interface was placed into the homes of 8 elderly persons for four weeks. Participants could play three different games: Checkers, Mastermind and Color-Sudoku. Two versions were programmed to examine the effect a social bond can have on the acceptance of the robotic user interface by participants and their usage pattern. One version used relationship building strategies while the other version did not. The field study investigated whether the use of such strategies facilitates the creation of a bond between a user and the robotic user interface. The results of the field study show that interaction with a robotic user interface can be sustained during the four week period and that elderly enjoy the companionship of the robotic game buddy. In addition, participants played significantly more time with the version that used relationship building strategies compared to the version that did not use these strategies.
Gros, N. Bingley, P.
Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Philips Research, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
国际会议
17th World Congress on Ergonomics(第十七届国际人类工效学大会)
北京
英文
1-10
2009-08-09（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）