Smart Information Flow Technologies - ILSA

Results from a Field Study: The Need for an Emotional Relationship between the Elderly and their Assistive Technologies

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 19:11:34 +0000

Keywords: ILSA system, focus group, social needs

Abstract: Many of the elder-care giving responsibilities of the aging population fall on the shoulders of adult children. Caregiver burnout is one of the top reasons for the transition from independent living to costly nursing homes or other care-giving facilities. As a result, technologists are rushing to find tools that can assist caregivers and augment the elder’s ability to age in place. For a generation whose introduction to technology includes the black and white television, where the metaphors of windows and desktops are not automatically understood, the blitz of PDAs, smart homes, and voice recognition systems can be confusing, intimidating and stressful. Add to this the elder’s need for companionship to ward off isolation and dementia, and the design problem transpires to a much bigger challenge than designing around physical limitations of the elderly. The idea of companionship provided by technology is not new. From the simple rule-based Tamagotchi pets to Sony’s sophisticated AIBO, there is a large body of evidence that shows that the owners of these robotic pets form genuine and meaningful emotional bonds. However, few solutions combine ‘purposeful utility’ with entertainment and companionship. Solutions that are ‘purposeful’ are predictable and seldom achieve the level of autonomy that captures the interest of and engages the user, while solutions with high entertainment value often lack functions that directly aid the elder with daily functions. We describe the details of a smart home field test, and examine focus group discussions that were conducted with both the participants and their adult children caregivers. We identify discussions from focus group transcripts that are related to the user’s social behaviours and emotions towards the technology, and changes in the user’s interaction with his/her caregiver caused by the introduction of the technology. We describe some aspects of the “personality” the participants projected onto the smart home despite the intended lack of physical character embodiment of the system, and relate this to existing theoretical work from human-human interactions and human learning theory. Finally, we offer insight into how these observations might translate into functional implementations to reap the benefits of assistive technology as a means to both reduce the burden of caregivers and provide companionship.

Citation:

Wu, P., & Miller, C. (2005, July 22-27). Results from a Field Study: The Need for an Emotional Relationship between the Elderly and their Assistive Technologies. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Augmented Cognition, Las Vegas, NV.

Date Published:

Friday, July 22, 2005

Publication File:

Wu-AugCog2005.pdf

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The role of “etiquette” in an automated medication reminder

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 18:58:43 +0000

Keywords: etiquette, reminder, human-machine, face threats, ILSA

Abstract: This paper describes a model of politeness between intentional agents developed from sociolinguistic observations of human-human interactions (Brown and Levinson, 1987) and suggests a method for applying it to human-machine interactions. Applications in the context of a medication reminder system are presented including data which suggest that the Brown and Levinson model provides good predictions for how “polite” alternate reminding utterances will be perceived when delivered by a machine. Additional data from a field test of one such reminding system are presented which indicate that “politeness”, and the etiquette behaviors which achieve various levels of politeness, are important to elders—though not that maximal politeness behaviors are either expected, desired or, perhaps, productive. Further, future applications of the Brown and Levinson model in military training are also discussed.

Citation:

Miller, C., Wu, P. & Chapman, M.(2004). The role of “etiquette” in an automated medication reminder. In (T. Bickmore, Ed.), Working Notes of the AAAI Fall Symposium on Dialogue Systems for Health Communication (pp. 88-96). Menlo Park, CA: AAAI Press.

Date Published:

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Publication File:

EtiquetteMedReminder.pdf

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Automated Elder Home Care:Long Term Adaptive Aiding and Support We Can Live With

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 18:47:55 +0000

Keywords: ILSA, etiquette, interactions,

Abstract: We have been working on home automation to support eldercare. This is an instance of long term humanautomation interaction in very intimate and personal settings with a potentially difficult user population. We report our design philosophy and some of the lessons learned relative to that philosophy from a six month field test with representatives of this user community. As a separate research thread, we report on the importance of "etiquette" in human-automation interactions in this domain, along with some initial models and findings about how to configure human-automation reminder interactions to support longterm "livability".

Citation:

Miller, C., Wu, P., Krichbaum, K., & Kiff, L. (2004, March 22-24). Automated Elder Home Care:Long Term Adaptive Aiding and Support We Can Live With. Paper presented at the AAAI Spring Symposium on Interaction between Humans and Autonomous Systems over Extended Operation, Stanford, Palo Alto, CA.

Date Published:

Monday, March 22, 2004

Publication File:

SS204CMiller.pdf

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Automation as Caregiver: The role of advanced technologies in elder care

admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 19:36:46 +0000

Keywords: elder care, ILSA, panel discussion

Abstract: An unprecedented boom in the elderly population will hit all industrialized and most other countries over the next 30 years. In many cases, governments, social service organizations and even individuals and families are turning to technological solutions to aid in care giving for this elderly population. While much of this technology continues to occupy traditional assistive roles such as aiding in walking, door opening, and communication, increasingly advanced technological solutions are being proposed to aid in monitoring, diagnosis, situation awareness, decision aiding and the direct automation of tasks for either the elderly themselves or for their caregivers. That is, technology is increasingly either occupying or sharing the role traditionally occupied by human caregivers. This role is understudied from a Human Factors perspective and, as with all human interactions with novel technology, failure to consider the humans’ needs, desires, capabilities and limitations will lead to unsatisfactory technological solutions at best, and disasters at worst. This panel will explore the role of automation as caregiver for the elderly. The central question will be how automation can be most appropriately integrated into a caregiving infrastructure so that it provides the best, most acceptable and most effective care from both the elders’ and the human caregivers’ (both professional and informal) perspectives.

Citation:

Miller, C., Dewing, W., Krichbaum, K., Kuiak, S., Shafer, S., & Rogers, W. (2001, October 8-12). Automation as Caregiver: The role of advanced technologies in elder care. Paper presented at the 45th Annual Conference of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Minneapolis, MN.

Date Published:

Monday, October 8, 2001

Publication File:

CareTech-fin.pdf

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The Independent LifeStyle Assistant

admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 19:12:43 +0000

Citation:

Miller, C., & Riley, V. (2001, July 1-6). The Independent LifeStyle Assistant. Paper presented at the XVIIth World Congress of the International Association of Gerontology, Vancouver, BC.

Date Published:

Sunday, July 1, 2001

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