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About

Rie Tamagawa is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction, with a particular focus on the social and psychological dimensions of deploying robots in healthcare and aged-care settings. Her work has fundamentally shaped how we understand user acceptance of assistive technologies among older adults and their caregivers. Tamagawa’s most influential study, “Attitudes towards health‑care robots in a retirement village” (2011, 226 citations), used focus groups and surveys to reveal nuanced preferences among residents, staff, and family members—showing that acceptance hinges not only on functionality but on trust, social presence, and perceived autonomy. Her 2011 paper on synthesized voice accents (102 citations) broke new ground by demonstrating that even subtle vocal characteristics can dramatically alter user perceptions of a robot’s warmth and competence. Together with her earlier work on task preferences in retirement homes (78 citations), Tamagawa established a user-centered framework that continues to guide robot design for aging populations. Her research remains essential reading for anyone developing socially assistive robots, offering a human-first perspective that bridges engineering, gerontology, and ethics.