Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Acceptability of a Teleoperated Android by Senior Citizens in Danish Society

A Case Study on the Application of an Embodied Communication Medium to Home Care

  • Published:
International Journal of Social Robotics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We explore the potential of teleoperated androids, which are embodied telecommunication media with humanlike appearances. By conducting a pilot study, we investigated how Telenoid, a teleoperated android designed as a minimalistic human, affects people in the real world when it is employed to express telepresence and a sense of ‘being there’. Our exploratory study focused on the social aspects of the android robot, which might facilitate communication between the elderly and Telenoid’s operator. This new way of creating social relationships can be used to solve a problem in society, the social isolation of senior citizens. It has become a major issue even in Denmark that is known as one of countries with advanced welfare systems. In this pilot study at Danish homes, we found that the elderly with or without dementia showed positive attitudes toward Telenoid and developed various dialogue strategies. Contrary to the issue of revulsion that can be caused by humanlike robots and the negative reactions by non-users in media reports, we discuss potentials and challenges of the android’s embodiment for social inclusion of senior citizens in telecommunications.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Population Division, United Nations (2011) World population prospects: the 2010 revision. New York

  2. Townsend P (1957) The family life of old people. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London

    Google Scholar 

  3. Kitwood T (1997) Dementia reconsidered: the person comes first. Open University Press, Buckingham

    Google Scholar 

  4. Madsen B, Olesen P (eds) (2003) Ældre om ensomhed: 25 ældre skriver om at være ensom (Serie om sorg og savn) [Elderly about loneliness: 25 elderly write about being lonely (series about sorrow and loss)]. Kroghs Forlag, Vejle

    Google Scholar 

  5. Willis SL (1996) Everyday problem solving. In: Birren JE et al (eds) Handbook of the psychology of aging, 4th edn. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 287–307

    Google Scholar 

  6. Aging in place: a state survey of livability policies and practices. In: The national conference of State Legislatures and the AARP Public Policy Institute, 2011

  7. Yamazaki R, Nishio S, Ogawa K, Ishiguro H (2012) Teleoperated android as an embodied communication medium: a case study with demented elderlies in a care facility. In: Proceedings of the RO-MAN’12, pp 1066–1071

  8. Yamazaki R, Nishio S, Ishiguro H, Nørskov M, Ishiguro N, Balistreri G (2012) Social acceptance of a teleoperated android: field study on elderly’s engagement with an embodied communication medium in Denmark. In: Proceedings of the international conference on social robotics (ICSR 2012), pp 428–437

  9. Denmarks Statistik. http://www.dst.dk/da/. Accessed 23 Nov 2013 (in Danish)

  10. Cabinet Office Japan, Annual report on the aging society: 2012

  11. Rostgaard T, Glendinning C, Gori C, Kröger T, Österle A, Szebehely M, Thoebald H, Timonen V, Vabø M (2011) LIVINDHOME: living independently at home: reforms in home care in 9 European countries. SFI—The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Copenhagen

    Google Scholar 

  12. Meijer A, van Campen C, Kerkstra A (2000) A comparative study of the financing, provision and quality of care in nursing homes. The approach of four European countries: Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. J Adv Nurs 32(3):554–561

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Mynatt ED, Essa I, Rogers W (2000) Increasing the opportunities for aging in place. In: Proceedings of the 2000 conference on universal usability, pp 65–71

  14. Kautz H, Fox D, Etzioni O, Borriello G, Arnstein L (2002) An overview of the assisted cognition project. The role of intelligent technology in elder care. AAAI Press, Automation as Caregiver, Menlo Park, pp 60–65

    Google Scholar 

  15. Pollack ME (2002) Planning technology for intelligent cognitive orthotics. In: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on artificial intelligence planning systems, p 322

  16. Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB (2010) Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. PLoS Med 7(7):e1000316(1)–e1000316(20)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Brooker D, Duceb L (2000) Well-being and activity in dementia: a comparison of group reminiscence therapy, structured goal-directed group activity, and unstructured time. Aging Ment Health 4:354–358

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Kuwahara N, Abe S, Yasuda K, Kuwabara K (2006) Networked reminiscence therapy for individuals with dementia by using photo and video sharing. In: Proceedings of the ASSETS’06, pp 125–132

  19. Alaoui M, Lewkowicz M (2013) A livingLab approach to involve elderly in the design of smart TV applications offering communication services. In: Online Communities and Social Computing, pp 325–334

  20. Kristoffersson A, Coradeschi S, Loutfi A (2010) User-centered evaluation of robotic telepresence for an elderly population. In: Proceedings of the 2nd international workshop on designing robotic artefacts with user- and experience-centred perspectives at NordiCHI’10, pp 1–4

  21. Wada K, Shibata T (2006) Robot therapy in a care house: results of case studies. In: Proceedings of the 15th IEEE international symposium on robot and human interactive communication, pp 581–586

  22. Pollack ME, Engberg S, Thrun S (2002) Pearl: a mobile robotic assistant for the elderly. The role of intelligent technology in elder care. AAAI Press, Automation as Caregiver, Menlo Park, pp 85–91

    Google Scholar 

  23. Tamura T, Yonemitsu S, Itoh A, Oikawa D, Kawakami A, Higashi Y, Fujimoto T, Nakajima K (2004) Is an entertainment robot useful in the care of elderly people with severe dementia? J Gerontol Med Sci 59A(1):83–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Heerink M, Kröse B, Evers V, Wielinga B (2006) The influence of a robot’s social abilities on acceptance by elderly users. In: Proceedings of the RO-MAN’06, pp 521–526

  25. Stiehl WD, Lieberman J, Breazeal C, Basel L, Cooper R, Knight H, Lalla L, Maymin A, Purchase S (2006) The huggable: a therapeutic robotic companion for relational, affective touch. In: Proceedings of the 3rd consumer communications and networking conference, pp 1290–1291

  26. Lee D, Yamazaki T, Helal S (2009) Robotic companions for smart space interaction. Pervasive Comput 8:78–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Mori M (1970) Bukimi no tani [The uncanny valley]. Energy 7(4):33–35 (in Japanese)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Green A, Huttenrauch H, Eklundh KS (2004) Applying the Wizard-of-Oz framework to cooperative service discovery and configuration. In: Proceedings of the 13th IEEE international workshop on robot and human interactive communication, pp 575–580

  29. Sellen AJ (1992) Speech patterns in video-mediated conversations. In: Proceedings of the CHI’92, pp 49–59

  30. Fahlen LE, Brown CG, Stahl O, Carlsson C (1993) A space based model for user interaction in shared synthetic environments. In: Proceedings of the INTERCHI’93, pp 43–48

  31. Buxton W (1997) Living in augmented reality: ubiquitous media and reactive environments. In: Finn K, Sellen A, Wilber S (eds) Video mediated communication. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, pp 363–384

    Google Scholar 

  32. Morikawa O (2004) The sense of togetherness in HyperMirror: an explanation using cognitive modes. In: Proceedings of the 14th international conference on artificial reality and telexistence, ICAT’04, pp 584–587

  33. Lee MK, Takayama L (2011) “Now, I have a body”: uses and social norms for mobile remote presence in the workplace. In: Proceedings of the CHI’11, pp 33–42

  34. Hollan J, Stornetta S (1992) Beyond being there. In: Proceedings of the CHI’92, pp 119–125

  35. Yamazaki R, Nishio S, Ogawa K, Matsumura K, Minato T, Ishiguro H, Fujinami T, Nishikawa M (2013) Promoting socialization of schoolchildren using a teleoperated android: an interaction study. Int J Hum Robot (IJHR) 10(1):1350007(1)–1350007(25)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Ishiguro H (2005) Android science: toward a new cross-disciplinary framework. In: Proceedings of toward social mechanisms of android science. A CogSci 2005 Workshop, pp 1–6

  37. Fong T, Nourbakhsh I, Dautenhahn K (2003) A survey of socially interactive robots. Robot Auton Syst 42:143–166

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  38. Minato T, Shimada M, Ishiguro H, Itakura S (2004) Development of an android robot for studying human–robot interaction. In: Proceedings of the 17th international conference on industrial and engineering applications of artificial intelligence and expert systems, pp 424–434

  39. Nishio S, Ishiguro H, Hagita N (2007) Can a teleoperated android represent personal presence? A case study with children. Psychologia 50(4):330–342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Ogawa K, Nishio S, Koda K, Balistreri G, Watanabe T, Ishiguro H (2011) Exploring the natural reaction of young and aged person with Telenoid in a real world. J Adv Comput Intell Intell Inform 15(5):592–597

    Google Scholar 

  41. Nishio S, Ishiguro H, Hagita N (2007) Geminoid: teleoperated android of an existing person. Hum Robot New Dev 20:343–352

    Google Scholar 

  42. Sekiguchi D, Inami M, Tachi S (2001) Robot-PHONE: RUI for interpersonal communication. In: CHI’01 Ext. Abst, pp 277–278

  43. Kuwamura K, Minato T, Nishio S, Ishiguro H (2012) Personality distortion in communication through teleoperated robots. In: Proceedings of the RO-MAN’12, pp 49–54

  44. DiSalvo C, Gemperle F, Forlizzi J, Montgomery E (2003) The hug: an exploration of robotic form for intimate communication. In: Proceedings of the RO-MAN’03, pp 403–408

  45. Ogawa K, Nishio S, Koda K, Taura K, T. Minato, Ishii CT, Ishiguro H (2011) Telenoid: tele-presence android for communication. In: Proceedings of the SIGGRAPH emerging technologies, p 15

  46. Alač M, Movellan J, Tanaka F (2011) When a robot is social: enacting a social robot through spatial arrangements and multimodal semiotic engagement in robotics practice. Soc Stud Sci 41(6): 126–159

  47. Den kan ogsa give en krammer [It can also give a hug]. http://www.information.dk/263649. Accessed 7 Jun 2012 (in Danish)

  48. Kavanaugh AL, Patterson SJ (2001) The impact of community computer networks on social capital and community involvement. Am Behav Sci 45:496–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Sone Y (2008) Realism of the unreal: the Japanese robot and the performance of representation. Vis Commun 7:345–362

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Kaplan F (2004) Who is afraid of the humanoid? Investigating cultural differences in the acceptance of robots. Int J Human Robot (IJHR) 1(3):465–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Nomura T (2009) Who and under what context requires “Roboethics” from cross-cultural perspective on assumptions about robots. In: Proceedings of the IEEE/ICRA 2009 workshop on RoboEthics, pp 118–119

  52. Tanaka F, Cicourel A, Movellan JR (2007) Socialization between toddlers and robots at an early childhood education center. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104(46):17954–17958

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) (2002) Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) educational pack

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by JST CREST, and MEXT KAKENHI 24300200. The authors thank all the participants and our colleagues for their cooperation in this work, especially Martin Fischer at Svendborg Municipality, Martin Exner at Danish University of Education, Jari Due Jessen at Technical University of Denmark, Helle Skovbjerg Karoff at Technical University of Denmark, and Ilona Straub at University Duisburg-Essen.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratory, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Keihanna Science City, Kyoto , 619-0288, Japan

    Ryuji Yamazaki & Shuichi Nishio

  2. Department of Systems Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka , 560-0043, Japan

    Hiroshi Ishiguro

  3. Institute for Culture and Society – Philosophy, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skousvej 7, 8000 , Aarhus C, Denmark

    Marco Nørskov

  4. Studies in Language and Society, Graduate School of Language and Culture, Osaka University, Minoo, Osaka , 562-8558, Japan

    Nobu Ishiguro

  5. DICGIM – Università degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 , Palermo, Italy

    Giuseppe Balistreri

Authors
  1. Ryuji Yamazaki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shuichi Nishio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hiroshi Ishiguro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Marco Nørskov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Nobu Ishiguro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Giuseppe Balistreri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryuji Yamazaki.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yamazaki, R., Nishio, S., Ishiguro, H. et al. Acceptability of a Teleoperated Android by Senior Citizens in Danish Society. Int J of Soc Robotics 6, 429–442 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-014-0247-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-014-0247-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation