McGlynn Sean A, Kemple Shawn C, Mitzner Tracy L, King Chih-Hung, Rogers Wendy A
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.
DTI Robotics, US, Inc.
Proc Hum Factors Ergon Soc Annu Meet. 2014 Sep;58(1):1914-1918. doi: 10.1177/1541931214581400. Epub 2014 Oct 17.
There is a growing proportion of older adults in the population. Normal aging brings about difficulty in maintaining autonomy as well as an increased need for social support. Animal-assisted therapy and pet-type robots may be a solution to this problem. However, older adults' living situations cannot always accommodate live animals and there are design limitations associated with many of the current pet-type robots. Paro's design addresses some of these issues, but perceptions of Paro's usefulness remain largely unexplored in the normally aging older adult population. The focus of this paper was to address perceived usefulness of the robot Paro as well as potential influencing factors of perceived usefulness. In this study, 30 healthy older adults (ages 67-80) completed questionnaires and answered interview questions regarding perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of Paro before and after they interacted with it. The data revealed that the participants were neutral regarding perceived usefulness of Paro in their daily lives. However, most participants indicated specific uses for themselves and others, which raised concerns regarding the applicability of the Perceived Usefulness measure in this context. Furthermore, most participants said that they would want to own Paro, and perceived it as being beneficial to other people. Data analysis is ongoing, but initial findings and potential response trends have been identified and discussed. Our results provide insights into healthy older adults' thoughts toward and acceptance of this robot, as well as potential influencing factors of its acceptance.
人口中老年人的比例在不断增加。正常衰老会导致维持自主性困难，以及对社会支持的需求增加。动物辅助疗法和宠物型机器人可能是解决这一问题的办法。然而，老年人的生活状况往往无法容纳活体动物，而且许多当前的宠物型机器人存在设计限制。帕罗（Paro）的设计解决了其中一些问题，但在正常衰老的老年人群体中，对帕罗有用性的认知在很大程度上仍未得到探索。本文的重点是探讨机器人帕罗的感知有用性以及感知有用性的潜在影响因素。在这项研究中，30名健康老年人（年龄在67 - 80岁之间）在与帕罗互动前后完成了关于帕罗感知有用性和感知易用性的问卷调查并回答了访谈问题。数据显示，参与者对帕罗在其日常生活中的感知有用性持中立态度。然而，大多数参与者指出了其对自己和他人的具体用途，这引发了对感知有用性度量在此背景下适用性的担忧。此外，大多数参与者表示他们想拥有帕罗，并认为它对其他人有益。数据分析正在进行，但初步结果和潜在的反应趋势已被识别和讨论。我们的结果为健康老年人对该机器人的看法和接受程度，以及其接受的潜在影响因素提供了见解。
