Psychological Implications of Domestic Assistive Technology for the Elderly

The ROBOCARE Domestic Environment (RDE) is the result of a three-year project aimed at developing cognitive support technology for elderly people. Specifically, the domestic environment is equipped with sensors, intelligent software components and devices which cooperate to provide cognitive support to the assisted person. The ROBOCARE interaction capabilities have been concentrated in a robotic mediator who acts as the main communication channel between the users and the intelligent domestic environment. This paper presents an evaluation of elderly people's perception of assistive robots and smart domotic environments. Results show how the acceptability of robotic devices in home setting does not depend only on the practical benefits they can provide, but also on complex relationships between the cognitive, affective and emotional components of people's images of robot. Specially, we analyzes a number of evaluation criteria related to the robot's aspect, the way in whi...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: PSYCHNOLOGY
• Authors: Amedeo Cesta, Gabriella Cortellessa, Vittoria Giuliani, Federico Pecora, Massimiliano Scopelliti, Lorenza Tiberio
• Keywords: Cognitive Support, Domestic Environment, Elderly People, PSYCHNOLOGY 2007