What is it about?

In an era characterized by an increasingly aging population, the loneliness situation of the population is getting more attention. A new method of dealing with it, using baby-like robots, has stepped into the public view in recent years. Baby-like robots serve as the care recipient instead of the caregiver, providing an emotional bond and a sense of companionship. While many baby-like robots have already been tested and are in use, what kind of emotional interactions the older adults prefer remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the difference the emotional expressions of baby-like robots make in their interactions with older adults.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

This study provides a conclusion on the emotional expressions of baby-like robots preferred by older adults. Unlike social robots with full social capabilities, baby-like robots are not expected to socialize with the user in natural languages or gestures. This makes emotional expressions an essential trait in interaction. This study is the first to experiment on this aspect systematically. It can guide the emotional interaction design of baby-like robots and provide instruction towards controlled interaction using a baby-like robot. Moreover, this study opens a new possibility where robots may not need fully functional capabilities to gain favor from the users.

Perspectives

Aside from the contributions this article makes towards elderly care and the design of baby-like robots, I hope this article can broaden the views towards robots. Apart from the giant robot arms and talking androids, other ‘clumsy’ robots can also gain favor in Human-Robot Interactions (HRI). It could also show us that people might not view companion robots as the ‘all mighty tool’ but as entertainment that provides fun. Maybe as another approach of HRI, instead of making the robots more like humans, we can also make robots more ‘baby-like’.

Shi Feng
Advanced Telecommunications Research Insitute International

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Effect of Emotional Expression on the Impression of Older People Towards Baby-like Robots: Effect of Emotional Expression of Baby-like Robots on Older People, November 2024, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3687272.3690901.
You can read the full text:

Read

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page