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Embodied Interaction Design to Promote Creative Social Engagement for Older Adults
Abstract
This paper presents an embodied interactive system designed for older adults to promote creative and social engagement, called Move and Paint. We performed a study to investigate the engagement and behavior patterns of older adults as they used Move and Paint. We conducted a focus group and interview study to understand general attitudes towards this gesture-based interactive system. We used the results to develop an evaluation framework to identify engagement and behavior patterns of older adults and conducted pattern analysis. Our findings show that embodied interactive technology can offer creative engaging experiences that enhance opportunities for older adults to participate in social and community engagement in public spaces.
... This new paradigm is characterized by the mixing of computer and human initiative (Yannakakis et al., 2014) in the middle of a continuum between human creativity and autonomous computational creativity (Deterding et al., 2017). Improving the interaction design with more human-like abilities for conversing and embodied interaction leads to more engaging AI collaboration (Abdellahi et al., 2020;Lee et al., 2020). Despite powerful generative AI methods becoming more and more accessible for designers of creative systems, we still know relatively little about designing interactive generative AI, how to design creative user experiences around them, and the ethical challenges defined by the open-endedness and reuse of creative work. ...
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21650349.2022.2021480
... Some inspiration may come from literature on how older people interact with technologies (e.g., [55]). First of all, older people seem to enjoy the opportunities afforded by Augmented and Mixed Reality applications [56], in particular because these technologies increase their overall sense of engagement [57]. They may, however, need additional time to get used to novel interaction modalities than younger adults, because they are accustomed to more traditional ways of interacting with technologies [58,59]. ...
This paper utilizes a visitor survey conducted at an open-air museum in New Harmony, Indiana to discuss design guidelines for immersive technologies that support historic interpretation–specifically, the visitor’s ability to experience the past. We focus on three themes that emerged from the survey: (1) Visitors at this site skewed older, with nearly a quarter over 70; (2) Despite literature suggesting the opposite, visitors at New Harmony liked to learn from a tour guide; and, (3) Visitors said they wanted to “experience the past.” The very notion of a single “experience” of the past, however, is complicated at New Harmony and other historic sites because they interpret multiple periods of significance. Ultimately, our findings suggest immersive technologies must be suited for older visitors, utilize the tour guide, and facilitate visitors’ ability to “experience the past” in such a way that they feel immersed in multiple timelines at the same site.
Smart environments and the use of interactive technology has the potential to improve the quality of life for the senior community as well as to support the connections among the senior community and the world outside their community. In addition to the increasing number of studies in the field of aging and technologies, research is needed to understand the practical issues of user focus, adoption, and engagement for older adults to accept interactive technologies in their lives. In this study, we use two commercial technological interventions (uDraw and GrandPad) to understand technology-related perceptions and behaviors of older adults. We present five case studies that emerge from empirical observations of initial engagement with technology through research methods such as focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, observations, and diary studies. The contributions of this study are identification of the key factors that influence the initial engagement with interactive technology for older adults.
We present the design of a system combining augmented reality (AR) and gamification to support elderly persons’ rehabilitation activities. The system is attached to the waist; it collects detailed movement data and at the same time augments the user’s path by projections. The projected AR-elements can provide location-based information or incite movement games. The collected data can be observed by therapists. Based on this data, the challenge level can be more frequently adapted, keeping up the patient’s motivation. The exercises can involve cognitive elements (for mild cognitive impairments), physiological elements (rehabilitation), or both. The overall vision is an individualized and gamified therapy. Thus, the system also offers application scenarios beyond rehabilitation in sports. In accordance with the methodology of design thinking, we present a first specification and a design vision based on inputs from business experts, gerontologists, physiologists, psychologists, game designers, cognitive scientists and computer scientists.
Background
Gestural interaction systems are increasingly being used, mainly in games, expanding the idea of entertainment and providing experiences with the purpose of promoting better physical and/or mental health. Therefore, it is necessary to establish mechanisms for evaluating the usability of these interfaces, which make gestures the basis of interaction, to achieve a balance between functionality and ease of use.
Objective
This study aims to present the results of a systematic review focused on usability evaluation methods for gesture-based games, considering devices with motion-sensing capability. We considered the usability methods used, the common interface issues, and the strategies adopted to build good gesture-based games.
Methods
The research was centered on four electronic databases: IEEE, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Springer, and Science Direct from September 4 to 21, 2015. Within 1427 studies evaluated, 10 matched the eligibility criteria. As a requirement, we considered studies about gesture-based games, Kinect and/or Wii as devices, and the use of a usability method to evaluate the user interface.
Results
In the 10 studies found, there was no standardization in the methods because they considered diverse analysis variables. Heterogeneously, authors used different instruments to evaluate gesture-based interfaces and no default approach was proposed. Questionnaires were the most used instruments (70%, 7/10), followed by interviews (30%, 3/10), and observation and video recording (20%, 2/10). Moreover, 60% (6/10) of the studies used gesture-based serious games to evaluate the performance of elderly participants in rehabilitation tasks. This highlights the need for creating an evaluation protocol for older adults to provide a user-friendly interface according to the user’s age and limitations.
Conclusions
Through this study, we conclude this field is in need of a usability evaluation method for serious games, especially games for older adults, and that the definition of a methodology and a test protocol may offer the user more comfort, welfare, and confidence.
For most nursing home residents, regular physical exercise is a necessity to keep standard motor-function and strength. Meanwhile, many nursing home residents do not pursue this actively. This paper examines if augmenting a conventional chair-based bike exercise, with a suite of four recreational virtual environments, will increase the intrinsic motivation with a group of nursing home residents. After 4-months of availability, results suggest that the augmentation has increased the intrinsic motivation to exercise, by comparing results from before and after, using measurement scales from the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory.
How does the body matter in art observations? Do physical distances, movements, and perspectives influence the way one appreciates art? Do experts and novices use their body differently in engaging with art objects? We present results of our studies with 22 art experts and novices in two types of art, "Ikebana" (Japanese traditional flower arrangement) and abstract paintings. In both types of art, we observed that experts engaged with the art from multiple perspectives while exhibiting minimal movements around the art. Novices, in contrast, either hovered around the art looking for clues of interpretations or did not move at all due to lack of interest. We discuss implications for design of embodied systems that can support users with various levels of expertise.
Early detection is important in dementia care; however, cognitive impairment is still under-recognised and under-diagnosed. Cognitive screening and training are two important preventative treatments, which can lead to early detection of cognitive decline. In this work, the “Cognitive Augmented Reality Cubes” (CogARC) system is presented, i.e. a serious game for cognitive training and screening, utilising an interaction technique based on Augmented Reality and the manipulation of tangible, physical objects (cubes). The game is a collection of cognitive mini-games of preventative nature and is, primarily, targeting elderly players (≥60 years old). A preliminary testing was conducted focusing on the game experience that CogARC offers (utilising the In-Game Experience Questionnaire), the usability of the system (using the System Usability Scale), and the specific user observations and remarks, as documented by open, semi-structured interviews. Overall, CogARC demonstrated satisfying positive responses, however, the negative reactions indicated that there are specific problems with aspects of the interaction technique and a number of mini-games. The open interview shed more light on the specific issues of each mini-game and further interpretation of user interactions. The current study managed to provide interesting insights into the game design elements, integration of Augmented Reality, tangible interaction of the system, and on how elderly players perceive and use those interaction components.
Augmented reality (AR) is growing rapidly and becoming more mature and robust, which combines virtual information with the real environment in the real-time performance [1]. It becomes significant to ensure the acceptance and success of augmented reality system. With the growth of elderly mobile users, evidence shows the possible trends using AR system to support elderly in terms of mobility and independence [34]. However, there is a lack of the sufficient potential solutions using AR for addressing older population's requirements and experience. This paper mainly presents the current situation of AR application and reviews the different domains using AR for supporting ageing population.
The massive technological advancements around the world have created significant challenging competition among companies where each of the companies tries to attract the customers using different techniques. One of the recent tech- niques is Augmented Reality (AR). The AR is a new technology which is capable of presenting possibilities that are difficult for other technologies to offer and meet. Nowadays, numerous augmented reality applications have been used in the industry of different kinds and disseminated all over the world. AR will really alter the way individuals view the world. The AR is yet in its initial phases of research and development at different colleges and high-tech institutes. Throughout the last years, AR apps became transportable and generally available on various devices. Besides, AR be- gins to occupy its place in our audio-visual media and to be used in various fields in our life in tangible and exciting ways such as news, sports and is used in many domains in our life such as electronic commerce, promotion, design, and business. In addition, AR is used to facilitate the learning whereas it enables students to access location-specific infor- mation provided through various sources. Such growth and spread of AR applications pushes organizations to compete one another, every one of them exerts its best to gain the customers. This paper provides a comprehensive study of AR including its history, architecture, applications, current challenges and future trends.
Modern technology offers many facilities, but elderly people are often unable to enjoy them fully because they feel discouraged or intimidated by modern devices, and thus become progressively isolated in a society where Internet communication and ICT knowledge are essential. In this paper we present a study performed during the Nacodeal Project, which aims to offer a technological solution that may improve elderly people's every day autonomy and life quality through the integration of ICTs. In order to achieve this goal, state-of-art Augmented Reality technology was developed along with carefully designed Internet services and interfaces for mobile devices. Such technology only requires the infrastructure which already exists in most residences and healthcare centres. We present the design of a prototypical system consisting of a tablet and a wearable AR system, and the evaluation of its impact on the social interaction of its users as well its acceptance and usability. This evaluation was performed, through focus groups and individual pilot tests, on 48 participants that included elderly people, caregivers and experts. Their feedback leads us to the conclusion that there are significant benefits to be gained and much interest among the elderly in assistive AR-based ICTs, particularly in relation to the communication and autonomy that they may provide.
People using wheelchairs face barriers in their daily lives, many of which are created by people who surround them. Promoting positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities is an integral step in removing these barriers and improving their quality of life. In this context, persuasive games offer an opportunity of encouraging attitude change. We created a wheelchair-controlled persuasive game to study how embodied interaction can be applied to influence player attitudes over time. Our results show that the game intervention successfully raised awareness for challenges that people using wheelchairs face, and that embodied interaction is a more effective approach than traditional input in terms of retaining attitude change over time. Based on these findings, we provide design strategies for embodied interaction in persuasive games, and outline how our findings can be leveraged to help designers create effective persuasive experiences beyond games.
Australia was pivotal in placing empirical study of the social impact of the arts on the map, and yet, a lack of continued robust research has meant that it no longer holds this place. Despite a general acceptance within the arts and health industries that the arts can have positive social impacts, there is little robust evidence to prove this. This paper reviews existing research, finding three primary debates around meaning, methodology, and mastery. This paper recommends a holistic approach to arts impact studies that juxtapose the social and intrinsic impacts. This paper is part of a larger research project into the impact of the arts that will redeem Australia's place as leaders in social impact of the arts studies.
In this paper we present a review of the most current avenues of research into Kinect-based elderly care and stroke rehabilitation systems to provide an overview of the state of the art, limitations, and issues of concern as well as suggestions for future work in this direction. The central purpose of this review was to collect all relevant study information into one place in order to support and guide current research as well as inform researchers planning to embark on similar studies or applications. The paper is structured into three main sections, each one presenting a review of the literature for a specific topic. Elderly Care section is comprised of two subsections: Fall Detection and Fall Risk Reduction. Stroke Rehabilitation section contains studies grouped under Evaluation of Kinect's Spatial Accuracy, and Kinect-based Rehabilitation Methods. The third section, Serious and Exercise Games, contains studies that are indirectly related to the first two sections and present a complete system for elderly care or stroke rehabilitation in a Kinect-based game format. Each of the three main sections conclude with a discussion of limitations of Kinect in its respective applications. The paper concludes with overall remarks regarding use of Kinect in elderly care and stroke rehabilitation applications and suggestions for future work. A concise summary with significant findings and subject demographics (when applicable) of each study included in the review is also provided in table format.
According to the literature, normal ageing is associated with a decline in sensory, perceptual, motor and cognitive abilities. When designing applications for elderly people, it is crucial to take into consideration the decline in functions. For this purpose, gesture-based applications that allow for direct manipulations can be useful, as they provide natural and intuitive interactions. This paper examines gesture-based applications for the elderly and studies that have investigated these applications, and it identifies opportunities and challenges in designing such applications.
Purpose
To provide an overview of factors influencing the acceptance of electronic technologies that support aging in place by community-dwelling older adults. Since technology acceptance factors fluctuate over time, a distinction was made between factors in the pre-implementation stage and factors in the post-implementation stage.
Methods
A systematic review of mixed studies. Seven major scientific databases (including MEDLINE, Scopus and CINAHL) were searched. Inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) original and peer-reviewed research, (2) qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods research, (3) research in which participants are community-dwelling older adults aged 60 years or older, and (4) research aimed at investigating factors that influence the intention to use or the actual use of electronic technology for aging in place. Three researchers each read the articles and extracted factors.
Results
Sixteen out of 2,841 articles were included. Most articles investigated acceptance of technology that enhances safety or provides social interaction. The majority of data was based on qualitative research investigating factors in the pre-implementation stage. Acceptance in this stage is influenced by 27 factors, divided into six themes: concerns regarding technology (e.g., high cost, privacy implications and usability factors); expected benefits of technology (e.g., increased safety and perceived usefulness); need for technology (e.g., perceived need and subjective health status); alternatives to technology (e.g., help by family or spouse), social influence (e.g., influence of family, friends and professional caregivers); and characteristics of older adults (e.g., desire to age in place). When comparing these results to qualitative results on post-implementation acceptance, our analysis showed that some factors are persistent while new factors also emerge. Quantitative results showed that a small number of variables have a significant influence in the pre-implementation stage. Fourteen out of the sixteen included articles did not use an existing technology acceptance framework or model.
Conclusions
Acceptance of technology in the pre-implementation stage is influenced by multiple factors. However, post-implementation research on technology acceptance by community-dwelling older adults is scarce and most of the factors in this review have not been tested by using quantitative methods. Further research is needed to determine if and how the factors in this review are interrelated, and how they relate to existing models of technology acceptance.
We evaluated the seal-like robot PARO in the context of multi-sensory behavioral therapy in a local nursing home. Participants were 10 elderly nursing home residents with varying levels of dementia. We report three principle findings from our observations of interactions between the residents, PARO, and a therapist during seven weekly therapy sessions. Firstly, we show PARO provides indirect benefits for users by increasing their activity in particular modalities of social interaction, including visual, verbal, and physical interaction, which vary between primary and non-primary interactors. Secondly, PARO's positive effects on older adults' activity levels show steady growth over the duration of our study, suggesting they are not due to short-term "novelty effects." Finally, we show a variety of ways in which individual participants interacted with PARO and relate this to the "interpretive flexibility" of its design.
Over the last decade, 'user experience' (UX) became a buzzword in the field of human – computer interaction (HCI) and interaction design. As technology matured, interactive products became not only more useful and usable, but also fashionable, fascinating things to desire. Driven by the impression that a narrow focus on interactive products as tools does not capture the variety and emerging aspects of technology use, practitioners and researchers alike, seem to readily embrace the notion of UX as a viable alternative to traditional HCI. And, indeed, the term promises change and a fresh look, without being too specific about its definite meaning. The present introduction to the special issue on 'Empirical studies of the user experience' attempts to give a provisional answer to the question of what is meant by 'the user experience'. It provides a cursory sketch of UX and how we think UX research will look like in the future. It is not so much meant as a forecast of the future, but as a proposal – a stimulus for further UX research.
The field of assistive technology has focussed hitherto on developing systems and techniques to ameliorate the problems caused by the declining physical capabilities of the older people. As information systems increase in daily importance, the possibilities of their use in caring for the older population expand and the problems older people experience in interacting with such systems become more pressing. Under the auspices of the SPARC programme, we are conducting a Wizard of Oz (WoZ) evaluation of novel interfaces to an on-line reminder system to support the daily activities of older people with non-intrusive and persuasive reminders.
Advances in new technologies can provide solutions to prevent impairments associated with normal aging, track performance at specific tasks, and provide an entertaining experience to elderly people. Based on these premises we present Eldergames, an EU funded project that aims at creating an interactive tool for preserving cognitive functions impaired by aging and affording sociability. A first prototype has recently been created and its acceptance has been tested on groups of elderly users. The prototype proved able to provide a pleasant social cognitive training because of its simplicity, usability of the interface, and multiplayer architecture.
The Sharetouch, which is a multi-touch social interaction system, aims to enable the elderly to engage the benefits of IT and enhance their social interaction among those older persons living in the community. Unlike most of the in-the-market digital devices, the Sharetouch attempts to merge the digital desktop and physical table into one, and has extra capabilities. Hence, a 52-inch large share-display system is developed for the purpose of accommodating multi-users simultaneously on a table surface shown in this paper.
Many claims have been made regarding the potential benefits of Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs). Presented here is an experiment assessing the usability, problem solving, and collaboration benefits of a TUI for direct placement tasks in spatially-explicit simulations for environmental science education. To create a low-cost deployment for single-computer classrooms, the TUI uses a webcam and computer vision to recognize the placement of paper symbols on a map. An authentic green infrastructure urban planning problem was used as the task for a within-subjects with rotation experiment with 20 pairs of participants. Because no prior experimental study has isolated the influence of the embodied nature of the TUI on usability, problem solving, and collaboration, a control condition was designed to highlight the impact of embodiment. While this study did not establish the usability benefits suggested by prior research, certain problem solving and collaboration advantages were measured.
In this paper we describe MoBoogie, an application that allows users to manipulate and arrange music through movement. MoBoogie is designed to foster experiences in creative expression for children and potentially adults. The application responds to users' movements by changing variables in a continuous stream of music loops. Results from this study suggest that the creative expressions arose in the joint space of movement and music, and did not primarily have to be in one form or the other. This allowed users with limited experience in dance and music making to be creative in such forms of expression.
This paper presents the design ideas and a preliminary study of a touch-based gestural interface to support older adults in social networking. We had the hypothesis that the directness of gestures made them well suited to implement an interaction metaphor based on familiarity. Although preliminary, this hypothesis can be sustained. In particular, we found that most of the gestures (and in particular the iconic and the dynamic ones) have a hedonic quality that attracted and motivated our participants. We think that our results may contribute to the ongoing debate about gestural interfaces and help in understanding the value and the issue of this form of interaction.
In this paper, we present evidence that although current models for introduction of robotic companions stress individual encounters, a social community alternative is promising. This argument emerges from an experiment we conducted with a small interactive robot at two local nursing homes. Here we give a brief introduction to the robot and our experience at the homes. We compare the robot used to a semi-robotic toy whose use initially suggested to us the benefits of social community models in the presentation of robotics to the elderly. We find that even where individual encounters are significant, sensitivity to social dimensions improve the benefits of these encounters
Large displays are increasingly being placed in public places to support community and social activities. However, a major problem that has been observed with this new form of public interaction is the resistance by the public to participate. A main reason is due to the prominence of the affective aspect of the user experience. In particular, feelings of social embarrassment often act as a barrier. Our paper is concerned with understanding why this is the case and considering how we can attempt to overcome these aspects through improving the design of public interaction. Our focus is on how groups of people socialize around large public displays, the way they move towards them, congregate around them and change from being onlookers to participants and back again. We describe a system - the Opinionizer - which we designed and placed in two authentic social gatherings, intended to encourage socializing and interaction. We present our findings in terms of the patterns of physical and social engagement that take place around it. We then present a model of public interaction flow, which we use as the basis from which to provide design recommendations for encouraging public participation.
The urge to improve the life of older adults grows as this segment of society expands. Computers have an enormous potential to benefit the lives of older adults, however, the unawareness or disregard of their characteristics, renders technology, many times, impossible to use. Peripherals are a common obstacle when learning to operate computers, because the most common ones do not directly map the input in the user interface. It has been argued that touch- and gesture-based user interfaces, due to their direct mapping of input, can reduce the obstacles that older adults face, when using the computer. To assess this, this paper presents a project that uses a multi-touch tabletop system as a gaming platform for older adults. Specifically, it reports on the low-fidelity prototype that was built to test whether tangible objects can be used. Conclusions regarding the viability of tangible objects for that purpose are also drawn.
Emotion communication research strongly focuses on the face and voice as expressive modalities, leaving the rest of the body relatively understudied. Contrary to the early assumption that body movement only indicates emotional intensity, recent studies have shown that body movement and posture also conveys emotion specific information. However, a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms is hampered by a lack of production studies informed by a theoretical framework. In this research we adopted the Body Action and Posture (BAP) coding system to examine the types and patterns of body movement that are employed by 10 professional actors to portray a set of 12 emotions. We investigated to what extent these expression patterns support explicit or implicit predictions from basic emotion theory, bidimensional theory, and componential appraisal theory. The overall results showed partial support for the different theoretical approaches. They revealed that several patterns of body movement systematically occur in portrayals of specific emotions, allowing emotion differentiation. Although a few emotions were prototypically expressed by one particular pattern, most emotions were variably expressed by multiple patterns, many of which can be explained as reflecting functional components of emotion such as modes of appraisal and action readiness. It is concluded that further work in this largely underdeveloped area should be guided by an appropriate theoretical framework to allow a more systematic design of experiments and clear hypothesis testing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Successful rehabilitation with respect to the activities of daily living (ADL) requires accurate and effective assessment and training. A number of studies have emphasized the requirement for rehabilitation methods that are both relevant to the patient's real world environment, and that can also be transferred to other daily living tasks. Virtual reality (VR) has many advantages over other ADL rehabilitation techniques, and offers the potential to develop a human performance testing and training environment. Therefore, in this study, the virtual supermarket was developed and the possibility of using a VR system to assess and train cognitive ability in ADL investigated. This study demonstrates that VR technology offers great promise in the field of ADL training.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives. There are consequently many common misconceptions about what AI is, what it is capable of, and how it works. Compounding the issue, opportunities to learn about AI are often limited to audiences who already have access to and knowledge about technology. Increasing access to AI in public spaces has the potential to broaden public AI literacy, and experiences involving co-creative (i.e. collaboratively creative) AI are particularly well-suited for engaging a broad range of participants. This paper explores how to design co-creative AI for public interaction spaces, drawing both on existing literature and our own experiences designing co-creative AI for public venues. It presents a set of design principles that can aid others in the development of co-creative AI for public spaces as well as guide future research agendas.
Positive social and collaborative effects are hailed as a major advantage of embodied and tangible approaches to interaction. This studio offers a hands-on exploration of potentially extreme versions of such benefits - systems and techniques that somehow share or transfer embodiment between two or more people. Through participatory demos, studio attendees will explore and compare a variety of approaches to experiencing the perspectives of another body, and controlling bodies other than their own. These comparisons will be a launch pad for collaboratively combining existing “body sharing” systems and mocking up new design concepts. By bringing together ideas and approaches in an actionable manner, this studio will share and develop imagination, theory, and skills relevant to the design and study of interactive systems in which the body plays a central role.
Interactive technology is increasingly integrated with physical objects that do not have a traditional keyboard and mouse style of interaction, and many do not even have a display. These objects require new approaches to interaction design, referred to as post-WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointer) or as embodied interaction design.
This book provides an overview of the design opportunities and issues associated with two embodied interaction modalities that allow us to leave the traditional keyboard behind: tangible and gesture interaction. We explore the issues in designing for this new age of interaction by highlighting the significance and contexts for these modalities. We explore the design of tangible interaction with a reconceptualization of the traditional keyboard as a Tangible Keyboard, and the design of interactive three-dimensional (3D) models as Tangible Models. We explore the design of gesture interaction through the design of gesture-base commands for a walk-up-and-use information display, and through the design of a gesture-based dialogue for the willful marionette. We conclude with design principles for tangible and gesture interaction and a call for research on the cognitive effects of these modalities.
Table of Contents: Preface / Acknowledgments / Introduction / Tangible Interaction Design / Designing for Tangible Interaction / Gesture-based Interaction / Designing for Gesture Interaction / Looking to the Future: Research Challenges / Bibliography / Authors' Biographies
In this paper we describe the development and evaluation of three kitchen blenders that were specifically designed to stimulate mindfulness in interaction, that is: engagement with, and care for what you are doing. We find that the directness we used to have preparing our food has been sacrificed to efficiency and ease of use, which does not match our current zest for 'slow food' and 'slow cooking'. We argue that most of our kitchen appliances make us less engaged in the act of and less caring for cooking. In order to counter this we see opportunities for a more tangible or embodied interaction style where expressive input leads to expressive output. In order to research this argument we have developed three embodied kitchen blender interaction styles and compared these to a more traditional blender interaction. Preliminary findings suggest that more embodied interaction styles do indeed lead to more mindful engagement in interaction.
Technology has the ability to enhance and enrich the lives of older adults by facilitating better interpersonal relationships. However, few studies have directly examined associations between technology use for social reasons and physical and psychological health among older adults. The current study examines the benefits of technology use in 591 older adults from the 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (Mage = 68.18, SD = 10.75; 55.5% female). Social technology use was assessed through five technology-based behaviors (i.e., using e-mail, social networking sites, online video/phone calls, online chatting/instant messaging, using a smartphone). Attitudes toward the usability and benefits of technology use were also assessed. Older adults had generally positive attitudes toward technology. Higher social technology use was associated with better self-rated health, fewer chronic illnesses, higher subjective well-being, and fewer depressive symptoms. Furthermore, each of the links between social technology use and physical and psychological health was mediated by reduced loneliness. Close relationships are a large determinant of physical health and well-being, and technology has the potential to cultivate successful relationships among older adults.
The aging of populations is a global phenomenon. At the present time, approximately 10 % of the world’s population are aged 60 years and over, but the proportion is projected to increase to about 20 % by 2050. While the population worldwide is growing at around 1 % per annum, the number of people aged over 80 is growing at 4 % per annum. Moreover, the phenomenon of population aging is not limited to the developed countries. Currently 64 % of older people live in less developed regions, but this figure will rise to 80 % by 2050 (HelpAge International, 2012).
This study investigated what types of technology older adults (OA) are using, what they are doing with these technologies, what they would like to be doing with technology and what barriers are preventing them from doing what they would like to do. A nonexperimental survey design was used for the research. Eighty-two OA recruited by a snowball convenience sample participated in the study. Results indicate more than 50% of respondents are using cell/smart phones and computers while much fewer are using tablets and e-readers. Socializing (calling and emailing) and surfing the net are important activities for elders. They would like to use alarms and calendar features. Barriers to use include lack of knowledge, negative attitudes, and age-related changes such as vision and hearing loss and fine motor difficulties. Conclusions present implications for further research as well as therapeutic use of technology with OA.
Technology has recently begun to be explored as a way to cope with the challenges related to the aging of the population. However, while many technological systems for older adults have entered the market, the rate of adoption is low despite the potential benefits they intend to provide. The market response suggests that older adults' adoption of technology is not simply a matter of performance and price, but a complex issue that is affected by multiple factors. To address the issue in a more comprehensive way, this review study identifies factors that influence older adults' perceptions and decisions around adoption and use of technology-enabled products and services with an integration of related findings from various fields. Based on a survey of related studies, 10 factors—value, usability, affordability, accessibility, technical support, social support, emotion, independence, experience, and confidence—are identified as the facilitators or determinants of older adults' adoption of technology. While previous studies have focused on detailed design and physical ease-of-use, the 10 factors provide a holistic framework that covers social contexts of use and delivery and communication channels as well as individual characteristics and technical features. This paper describes the factors with empirical evidence and design implications. The goal of this paper is to provide a base for a more comprehensive understanding of older adults as users and consumers of technology; to inform designers, developers, and managers about practical implications; and to set a research agenda for future studies in related fields.
In this paper, I describe the motivation for and the background necessary to develop and evaluate an early set of design guidelines for creating tangible and embodied interfaces that focus on engaging, augmenting and improving spatial ability. I then briefly analyze prior tangible and embodied interactive systems (TEIs) from a spatial ability perspective and discuss the next steps in the development of my proposed guidelines.
In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and user study evaluation of a socially assistive robot (SAR) system designed to engage elderly users in physical exercise aimed at achieving health benefits and improving quality of life. We discuss our design methodology, which incorporates insights from psychology research in the area of intrinsic motivation, and focuses on maintaining engagement through personalized social interaction. We describe two user studies conducted to test the motivation theory in practice with our system. The first study investigated the role of praise and relational discourse in the exercise system by comparing a relational robot coach to a nonrelational robot coach. The second study evaluated participant preferences regarding user choice in the task scenario. Both studies served to evaluate the feasibility and overall effectiveness of the robot exercise system. The results of both studies are presented; they show a strong user preference for the relational over the nonrelational robot in terms of enjoyableness, companionship, and as an exercise coach, varying user preferences regarding choice, and high user ratings of the system across multiple metrics. The outcomes of the presented user studies, brought together, support the motivational capabilities of the robot, and demonstrate the viability and usefulness of the system in motivating exercise in elderly users.
Research in social epidemiology suggests that the absence of positive social relationships is a significant risk factor for broad-based morbidity and mortality. The nature of these social relationships and the mechanisms underlying this association are of increasing interest as the population gets older and the health care costs associated with chronic disease escalate in industrialized countries. We review selected evidence on the nature of social relationships and focus on one particular facet of the connection continuum – the extent to which an individual feels isolated (i.e., feels lonely) in a social world. Evidence indicates that loneliness heightens sensitivity to social threats and motivates the renewal of social connections, but it can also impair executive functioning, sleep, and mental and physical well-being. Together, these effects contribute to higher rates of morbidity and mortality in lonely older adults.
Why are older adults reluctant to adopt new technology, such as the Internet, given its potential to improve the quality of their lives? We review evidence indicating that attitudes and abilities are among the most powerful predictors of technology use. We conclude that normative age-related changes in ability must be taken into account when designing products and training programs for aging adults, and we discuss new tools to support designers. The most promising emerging technologies likely lie in training cognitive abilities and augmenting or substituting for impaired abilities. We discuss reasons to expect that the lag in technology adoption between younger and older adults may lessen but will not disappear in future generations.
RÉSUMÉ
L’inclusion sociale est un facteur important pour promouvoir la santé optimale et le bien-être des personnes âgées. Les arts communautaires engagés (ACE) ont été promus comme moyen de soutenir l’inclusion sociale des personnes âgées, mais peu de preuves empiriques ont été rapportées. Le but de cette étude était d’explorer le rôle d’un programme de l’ACE dans la promotion de l’inclusion sociale des personnes âgées résidant dans la communauté. Seize heures d’observation des participants, neuf entretiens et des analyses de documents ont été menées auprès de 20 aînés au programme Arts, Santé et Aînés (ASA) Projet de Vancouver. Les résultats ont indiqué que le programme a soutenu la capacité des personnes âgées à développer des relations dans la communauté par de nouveaux moyens en les aidant à nouer des liens au-delà du centre pour personnes âgées. Les participants ont également développé un sentiment plus fort d’appartenance à la communauté grâce à la collaboration en tant que groupe , travaillant ensemble sur le projet artistique pour produire une présentation finale à l’ensemble de la communauté. Les résultats suggèrent que l’ACE contribue à l’inclusion sociale des personnes âgées.
The purpose of this article is to critically deconstruct the term engagement as it applies to peoples' experiences with technology. Through an extensive, critical multidisciplinary literature review and exploratory study of users of Web searching, online shopping, Webcasting, and gaming applications, we conceptually and operationally defined engagement. Building on past research, we conducted semistructured interviews with the users of four applications to explore their perception of being engaged with the technology. Results indicate that engagement is a process comprised of four distinct stages: point of engagement, period of sustained engagement, disengagement, and reengagement. Furthermore, the process is characterized by attributes of engagement that pertain to the user, the system, and user-system interaction. We also found evidence of the factors that contribute to nonengagement. Emerging from this research is a definition of engagement—a term not defined consistently in past work—as a quality of user experience characterized by attributes of challenge, positive affect, endurability, aesthetic and sensory appeal, attention, feedback, variety/novelty, interactivity, and perceived user control. This exploratory work provides the foundation for future work to test the conceptual model in various application areas, and to develop methods to measure engaging user experiences.
Older adults (n = 113) participated in focus groups discussing their use of and attitudes about technology in the context of their home, work, and healthcare. Participants reported using a wide variety of technology items, particularly in their homes. Positive attitudes (i.e., likes) outnumbered negative attitudes (i.e., dislikes), suggesting that older adults perceive the benefits of technology use to outweigh the costs of such use. Positive attitudes were most frequently related to how the technology supported activities, enhanced convenience, and contained useful features. Negative attitudes were most frequently associated with technology creating inconveniences, unhelpful features, as well as security and reliability concerns. Given that older adults reported more positive than negative attitudes about the technologies they use, these results contradict stereotypes that older adults are afraid or unwilling to use technology. These findings also highlight the importance of perceived benefits of use and ease of use for models of technology acceptance. Emphasizing the benefits of technology in education and training programs may increase future technology adoption.
This paper describes the research on mental commit robot that
seeks a different direction that is not so rigidly dependent on such
objective measures as accuracy, speed, and cost. The main goal of this
research is to explore a new area in robotics, with an emphasis on
human-robot interaction. In the previous research, we categorized robots
into four categories in terms of appearance. Then, we introduced a cat
robot and a seal robot, and evaluated them by interviewing many people.
The results showed that physical interaction improved subjective
evaluation. Moreover, a priori knowledge of a subject has much influence
into subjective interpretation and evaluation of the robot. In this
paper, 785 subjects were asked to evaluate the seal robot and the
results were analyzed by multivariate analysis. In addition, we applied
the mental commit robot to therapy of children similar to the animal
assisted therapy. This paper describes some of the results of the
“robot assisted therapy”
The role of technology in supporting social engagement among older adults
- S J Czaja
- SJ Czaja
E)Motion and creativity: hacking the function of motor expressions in emotion regulation to augment creativity
- A De Rooij
- S Jones