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Requirements and Platforms for Social Agents That Alarm and Support Elderly Living Alone

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Book cover Social Robotics (ICSR 2011)

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Abstract

Social embodied agents may mitigate moments of apathy and confusion that older adults can experience at home. Based on a literature study, use cases, requirements and claims were specified. In an experiment with 29 older adults (aged 70+), it was studied to what extent a virtual agent and three robots (i.e., the Nao, iCat and Nabaztag) provide a platform to support these use cases, requirements and claims. Participants seemed to evaluate the agents mainly in terms of three generic components: the perceived level of realism, intellectuality and friendliness. A more serious and agreeable appearance improved the appreciation of the agent’s actions. Especially facial realism appeared to be important for trust, social presence, perceived sociability and perceived enjoyment.

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Spiekman, M.E., Haazebroek, P., Neerincx, M.A. (2011). Requirements and Platforms for Social Agents That Alarm and Support Elderly Living Alone. In: Mutlu, B., Bartneck, C., Ham, J., Evers, V., Kanda, T. (eds) Social Robotics. ICSR 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 7072. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25504-5_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25504-5_23

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-25503-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-25504-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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