Journal article
Pilot testing a digital pet avatar for older adults
Geriatric nursing (New York), Vol.38(6), pp.542-547
11/2017
DOI: 10.1016/j.gerinurse.2017.04.002
PMCID: PMC5873948
PMID: 28479082
Abstract
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.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Pilot testing a digital pet avatar for older adults
- Creators
- Nai-Ching Chi - University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USAOlivia Sparks - University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USAShih-Yin Lin - University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USAAmanda Lazar - Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USAHilaire J Thompson - University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USAGeorge Demiris - University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Geriatric nursing (New York), Vol.38(6), pp.542-547
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.gerinurse.2017.04.002
- PMID
- 28479082
- PMCID
- PMC5873948
- NLM abbreviation
- Geriatr Nurs
- ISSN
- 0197-4572
- eISSN
- 1528-3984
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- Grant note
- DOI: 10.13039/100000002, name: National Institutes of Health/National Institute for Nursing Research Aging and Informatics Training Program, award: T32NR014833; DOI: 10.13039/100000001, name: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, award: DGE-1256082; DOI: 10.13039/100005825, name: Taiwan Ministry of Education Technologies Incubation Scholarship
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/2017
- Academic Unit
- Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Nursing
- Record Identifier
- 9984064281102771
Metrics
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