3 research outputs found
Companion robots for older people: importance of user-centred design demonstrated through observations and focus groups comparing preferences of older people and roboticists in South West England.
Companion robots for older
people: importance of usercentred design demonstrated
through observations and focus
groups comparing preferences
of older people and roboticists in
South West England. BMJ Open
2019;9:e032468. doi:10.1136/
bmjopen-2019-032468
â–º Prepublication history and
additional material for this
paper are available online. To
view these files, please visit
the journal online (http://dx.doi.
org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-
032468).
Received 25 June 2019
Revised 05 September 2019
Accepted 09 September 2019
For numbered affiliations see
end of article.
Correspondence to
Hannah Louise Bradwell;
hannah.bradwell@plymouth.
ac.uk
Original research
© Author(s) (or their
employer(s)) 2019. Re-use
permitted under CC BY-NC. No
commercial re-use. See rights
and permissions. Published by
BMJ.
Abstract
Objective Companion robots, such as Paro, may reduce
agitation and depression for older people with dementia.
However, contradictory research outcomes suggest robot
design is not always optimal. While many researchers
suggest user-centred design is important, there is little
evidence on the difference this might make. Here, we
aimed to assess its importance by comparing companion
robot design perceptions between older people (end users)
and roboticists (developers).
Design Older people and roboticists interacted with
eight companion robots or alternatives at two separate
events in groups of two to four people. Interactions were
recorded, participants’ comments and observations were
transcribed, and content was analysed. Subsequently,
each group participated in focus groups on perceptions of
companion robot design. Discussions were recorded and
transcribed, and content was analysed.
Participants and settings Seventeen older people
(5 male, 12 female, ages 60–99) at a supported living
retirement complex, and 18 roboticists (10 male, 8 female,
ages 24–37) at a research centre away-day.
Results We found significant differences in design
preferences between older people and roboticists.
Older people desired soft, furry, interactive animals that
were familiar and realistic, while unfamiliar forms were
perceived as infantilising. By contrast, most roboticists
eschewed familiar and realistic designs, thinking
unfamiliar forms better suited older people. Older people
also expressed desire for features not seen as important
by developers. A large difference was seen in attitude
towards ability to talk: 12/17 (71%) older people but only
2/18 (11%) roboticists requested speech. Older people
responded positively towards life-simulation features, eye
contact, robot personalisation and obeying commands,
features undervalued by roboticists. These differences
were reflected in preferred device, with ‘Joy for All’ cat
chosen most often by older people, while roboticists most
often chose Paro.
Conclusion The observed misalignment of opinion
between end users and developers on desirable design
features of companion robots demonstrates the need for
user-centred design during development
Calming Effects of Touch in Human, Animal, and Robotic Interaction—Scientific State-of-the-Art and Technical Advances
Small everyday gestures such as a tap on the shoulder can affect the way humans feel and act. Touch can have a calming effect and alter the way stress is handled, thereby promoting mental and physical health. Due to current technical advances and the growing role of intelligent robots in households and healthcare, recent research also addressed the potential of robotic touch for stress reduction. In addition, touch by non-human agents such as animals or inanimate objects may have a calming effect. This conceptual article will review a selection of the most relevant studies reporting the physiological, hormonal, neural, and subjective effects of touch on stress, arousal, and negative affect. Robotic systems capable of non-social touch will be assessed together with control strategies and sensor technologies. Parallels and differences of human-to-human touch and human-to-non-human touch will be discussed. We propose that, under appropriate conditions, touch can act as (social) signal for safety, even when the interaction partner is an animal or a machine. We will also outline potential directions for future research and clinical relevance. Thereby, this review can provide a foundation for further investigations into the beneficial contribution of touch by different agents to regulate negative affect and arousal in humans
Tactile emoticons: Conveying social emotions and intentions with manual and robotic tactile feedback during social media communications
Touch offers important non-verbal possibilities for socioaffective communication. Yet most digital communications lack capabilities regarding exchanging affective tactile messages (tactile emoticons). Additionally, previous studies on tactile emoticons have not capitalised on knowledge about the affective effects of certain mechanoreceptors in the human skin, e.g., the C-Tactile (CT) system. Here, we examined whether gentle manual stroking delivered in velocities known to optimally activate the CT system (defined as 'tactile emoticons'), during lab-simulated social media communications could convey increased feelings of social support and other prosocial intentions compared to (1) either stroking touch at CT sub-optimal velocities, or (2) standard visual emoticons. Participants (N = 36) felt more social intent with CT-optimal compared to sub-optimal velocities, or visual emoticons. In a second, preregistered study (N = 52), we investigated whether combining visual emoticons with tactile emoticons, this time delivered at CT-optimal velocities by a soft robotic device, could enhance the perception of prosocial intentions and affect participants' physiological measures (e.g., skin conductance rate) in comparison to visual emoticons alone. Visuotactile emoticons conveyed more social intent overall and in anxious participants affected physiological measures more than visual emoticons. The results suggest that emotional social media communications can be meaningfully enhanced by tactile emoticons. [Abstract copyright: Copyright: © 2024 Saramandi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.