TY - GEN
T1 - Comparing Ultrasonic and Force Feedback to Foster Older Adults’ Engagement in Cognitive Activities Facilitated by a Social Robot
AU - Nault, Emilyann
AU - Baillie, Lynne
AU - Broz, Frank
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - Engaging in cognitive activities early and regularly has been shown to improve cognitive performance and delay the natural progression of cognitive decline for older adults. Many factors can make it difficult to achieve this, such as lack of engagement, highlighting the potential for technology to enhance engagement with cognitive activities. This paper investigates the unique combination of haptic feedback and a Socially Assistive Robot (SAR) during categorization-based activities. In this experiment, passive and active kinesthetic force feedback led to improvements in factors such as usability and affective state compared to non-contact cutaneous (ultrasonic) feedback. The robot facilitation positively impacted older adults’ performance and their perception of usability and interactivity compared to using a laptop. Some design considerations emerged including the themes of control and informativeness of haptic feedback and the proxemics of the robot. This work supports the combination of haptic feedback, specifically force feedback, along with a SAR to foster engagement with cognitive activities for older adults.
AB - Engaging in cognitive activities early and regularly has been shown to improve cognitive performance and delay the natural progression of cognitive decline for older adults. Many factors can make it difficult to achieve this, such as lack of engagement, highlighting the potential for technology to enhance engagement with cognitive activities. This paper investigates the unique combination of haptic feedback and a Socially Assistive Robot (SAR) during categorization-based activities. In this experiment, passive and active kinesthetic force feedback led to improvements in factors such as usability and affective state compared to non-contact cutaneous (ultrasonic) feedback. The robot facilitation positively impacted older adults’ performance and their perception of usability and interactivity compared to using a laptop. Some design considerations emerged including the themes of control and informativeness of haptic feedback and the proxemics of the robot. This work supports the combination of haptic feedback, specifically force feedback, along with a SAR to foster engagement with cognitive activities for older adults.
KW - Cognitive activities
KW - Haptic feedback
KW - Kinesthetic force feedback
KW - Older adults
KW - Socially assistive robots
KW - Ultrasonic feedback
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85209594471&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-70061-3_30
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-70061-3_30
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85209594471
SN - 9783031700606
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science
SP - 372
EP - 384
BT - Haptics
PB - Springer
T2 - 14th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications 2024
Y2 - 30 June 2024 through 3 July 2024
ER -