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Avatars in Assistive Homes for the Elderly

A User-Friendly Way of Interaction?

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HCI and Usability for Education and Work (USAB 2008)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 5298))

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Abstract

Designing user interfaces for elderly people has become a prominent research topic. In the context of Assistive Homes the development of user-friendly and alternative interfaces for the improvement of usability and acceptance is an important goal. Applying avatars shall provide notable benefits. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of a ”photo-realistic avatar for people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia”. The findings of the user trials show positive effects such as raised user’s attention, increased likeability but no effects on memory functions. Also other approaches from Germany and Spain with less anthropomorph-looking avatars are presented and their results discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Austrian Research Centers GmbH - ARC, Biomedical Engineering / smart Biomedical systems, Viktor Kaplan-Strasse 2/1, A-2700, Wiener Neustadt, Austria

    Martin M. Morandell, Andreas Hochgatterer & Siegfried Wassertheurer

  2. Berlin Institute of Technology, Strasse des 17 Juni 135, D-10623, Berlin, Germany

    Sascha Fagel

Authors
  1. Martin M. Morandell
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  2. Andreas Hochgatterer
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  3. Sascha Fagel
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  4. Siegfried Wassertheurer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Documentation (IMI) Research Unit HCI4MED, Medical University Graz (MUG), Auenbruggerplatz 2/V, 8036, Graz, Austria

    Andreas Holzinger

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Morandell, M.M., Hochgatterer, A., Fagel, S., Wassertheurer, S. (2008). Avatars in Assistive Homes for the Elderly. In: Holzinger, A. (eds) HCI and Usability for Education and Work. USAB 2008. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5298. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89350-9_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89350-9_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-89349-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-89350-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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