Pilot testing a digital pet avatar for older adults

被引：33

作者：

Chi, Nai-Ching ^{[1
]}

Sparks, Olivia ^{[1
]}

Lin, Shih-Yin ^{[1
]}

Lazar, Amanda ^{[2
]}

Thompson, Hilaire J. ^{[1
]}

Demiris, George ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 USA

[2] Northwestern Univ, Evanston, IL USA

来源：

GERIATRIC NURSING | 2017年 / 38卷 / 06期

基金：

美国国家卫生研究院; 美国国家科学基金会;

关键词：

Older adults; Social isolation; Digital pet; Embodied conversational agent; Information and communication technology; SOCIAL-ISOLATION; TECHNOLOGY;

D O I：

10.1016/j.gerinurse.2017.04.002

中图分类号：

R592 [老年病学]; C [社会科学总论];

学科分类号：

03 ; 0303 ; 100203 ;

摘要：

Social isolation in older adults is a major public health concern. An embodied conversational agent (ECA) has the potential to enhance older adults' social interaction. However, little is known about older adults' experience with an ECA. In this paper, we conducted a pilot study to examine the perceived acceptance and utility of a tablet-based conversational agent in the form of an avatar (termed "digital pet") for older adults. We performed secondary analysis of data collected from a study that employed the use of a digital pet in ten older adults' homes for three months. Most of the participants enjoyed the companionship, entertainment, reminders, and instant assistance from the digital pet. However, participants identified limited conversational ability and technical issues as system challenges. Privacy, dependence, and cost were major concerns. Future applications should maximize the agent's conversational ability and the system's overall usability. Our results can inform future designs of conversational agents for older adults, which need to include older adults as system co-designers to maximize usability and acceptance. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

引用

页码：542 / 547

页数：6

共 17 条

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