Communicative robot interface for the ageing society

Abstract

Supporting the elder people's independent life is needed for the imminent ageing societies. Assistance should be provided from both physical and cognitive aspects. The houses enhanced by use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) are called smart homes and they proved to be useful for physical assistance for the elder persons. Communication is important to improve elderly people's moods and interactive robots are another promising ICT to provide mental or cognitive support for the elder people. In this paper, effects of the interactive robots are evaluated based on a real-life experiment with a couple of husband and wife in their sixties. The impression of the interactive robots is analyzed based on the score of SD (Semantic Differential) method.