The influence of social presence on enjoyment and intention to use of a robot and screen agent by elderly users

When using a robot or a screen agent, elderly users might feel more enjoyment if they experience a stronger social presence. In two experiments with a robotic agent and a screen agent (both n=30) this relationship between these two concepts could be established. Besides, both studies showed that social presence correlates with the Intention to Use the system, although there were some differences between the agents. This implicates that factors that influence social presence are relevant when designing assistive agents for elderly people

Assessing Acceptance of Assistive Social Agent Technology by Older Adults: the Almere Model

This paper proposes a model of technology acceptance that is specifically developed to test the acceptance of assistive social agents by elderly users. The research in this paper develops and tests an adaptation and theoretical extension of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) by explaining intent to use not only in terms of variables related to functional evaluation like perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, but also variables that relate to social interaction. The new model was tested using controlled experiment and longitudinal data collected regarding three different social agents at elderly care facilities and at the homes of older adults. The model was strongly supported accounting for 59-79% of the variance in usage intentions and 49-59% of the variance in actual use. These findings contribute to our understanding of how elderly users accept assistive social agents

Effect of agent embodiment on the elder user enjoyment of a game

International audienceThis paper presents a study that compared the elder user enjoyment of a game of trivia in three conditions: participants playing the game with a laptop PC vs. a robot vs. a virtual agent. Statistical analysis did not show any significant difference of the three devices on user enjoyment while qualitative analysis revealed a preference for the laptop PC condition, followed by the robot and the virtual agent. The elderly participants were concentrated on the task performance rather on the interaction with systems. They preferred laptop PC condition mainly because there were less interfaces distracting them from performing the task proposed by the game. Further, the robot was preferred to a virtual agent because of its physical presence. Some issues of the experiment design are raised and directions for future research are suggested to gain more insight into the effects of agent embodiment on human-agent interaction

A Meta-Analysis of Enjoyment Effect on Technology Acceptance: The Moderating Role of Technology Conventionality

Recent advancements in Information and Communication Technology lead to the development of affordable, novel, out of the ordinary, and unconventional information technology artifacts. Such innovative technologies including virtual reality, wearable technology, and robots; feature unique human-computer interfaces, untraditional hardware designs, enable unique and atypical affordances, and provide their users with unprecedented experiences. As these artifacts become more pervasive, it is important to understand whether established Information Systems theories apply to this new paradigm. This meta-analysis introduces the definition of technology conventionality and investigates its moderating role on the effect of perceived enjoyment on users’ behavioural intention to use the technology with the aim of contrasting the effect sizes across conventional and unconventional technologies. Findings indicate that perceived enjoyment plays an important role in shaping users’ behavioural intention for both conventional and unconventional technologies. Implications for practice and future research are discussed

The use of UTAUT and Post Acceptance models to investigate the attitude towards a telepresence robot in an educational setting

(1) Background: In the last decade, various investigations into the field of robotics have created several opportunities for further innovation to be possible in student education. However, despite scientific evidence, there is still strong scepticism surrounding the use of robots in some social fields, such as personal care and education; (2) Methods: In this research, we present a new tool named: HANCON model that was developed merging and extending the constructs of two solid and proven models: the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to examine the factors that may influence the decision to use a telepresence robot as an instrument in educational practice, and the Post Acceptance Model to evaluate acceptability after the actual use of a telepresence robot. The new tool is implemented and used to study the acceptance of a Double telepresence robot by 112 pre-service teachers in an educational setting; (3) Results: The analysis of the experimental results predicts and demonstrate a positive attitude towards the use of telepresence robot in a school setting and confirm the applicability of the model in an educational context; (4) Conclusions: The constructs of the HANCON model could predict and explain the acceptance of social telepresence robots in social contexts

Psychometric evaluation supported by a social robot: personality factors and technology acceptance

Robotic psychological assessment is a novel field of research that explores social robots as psychometric tools for providing quick and reliable screening exams. In this study, we involved elderly participants to compare the prototype of a robotic cognitive test with a traditional paper-and-pencil psychometric tool. Moreover, we explored the influence of personality factors and technology acceptance on the testing. Results demonstrate the validity of the robotic assessment conducted under professional supervision. Additionally, results show the positive influence of Openness to experience on the interaction with robot's interfaces, and that some factors influencing technology acceptance, such as Anxiety, Trust, and Intention to use, correlate with the performance in the psychometric tests. Technical feasibility and user acceptance of the robotic platform are also discussed