Kazuko Obayashi
Papers
3
Total Citations
44
H-Index
3
About
Kazuko Obayashi is a researcher whose work sits at the intersection of assistive technology, eldercare, and nursing practice, with a particular focus on the integration of socially assistive robots (SARs) into aged care settings. Her research addresses one of the most pressing challenges in modern healthcare: meeting the growing demands of an aging population amid a persistent shortage of care workers. Obayashi's most influential contribution, garnering 30 citations, applied the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) framework to evaluate how SARs enhance older people's activity and participation across multiple care facilities, providing much-needed empirical grounding in a field where effectiveness data had been limited. Beyond resident outcomes, she has also turned her attention to the often-overlooked perspective of the care workforce, quantitatively measuring how communicative robots equipped with infrared monitoring systems affect the workload of night shift nursing staff — a methodologically innovative approach that bridges human factors research with robotics deployment. Obayashi's body of work is notable for its practical orientation and rigorous evaluation methodology, making meaningful contributions to evidence-based discussions about how technology can be responsibly and effectively integrated into real-world care environments.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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