scholarly journals Age-Related Differences in the Evaluation of a Virtual Health Agent’s Appearance and Embodiment in a Health-Related Interaction: Experimental Lab Study

10.2196/13726 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. e13726
Author(s):  
Carolin Straßmann ◽  
Nicole C Krämer ◽  
Hendrik Buschmeier ◽  
Stefan Kopp
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Virtual Agents ◽  
Social Responses ◽  
Healthy Behaviors ◽  
Human Agent ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Agent Interaction ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Overall Evaluation

Background Assistive technologies have become more important owing to the aging population, especially when they foster healthy behaviors. Because of their natural interface, virtual agents are promising assistants for people in need of support. To engage people during an interaction with these technologies, such assistants need to match the users´ needs and preferences, especially with regard to social outcomes. Objective Prior research has already determined the importance of an agent’s appearance in a human-agent interaction. As seniors can particularly benefit from the use of virtual agents to maintain their autonomy, it is important to investigate their special needs. However, there are almost no studies focusing on age-related differences with regard to appearance effects. Methods A 2×4 between-subjects design was used to investigate the age-related differences of appearance effects in a human-agent interaction. In this study, 46 seniors and 84 students interacted in a health scenario with a virtual agent, whose appearance varied (cartoon-stylized humanoid agent, cartoon-stylized machine-like agent, more realistic humanoid agent, and nonembodied agent [voice only]). After the interaction, participants reported on the evaluation of the agent, usage intention, perceived presence of the agent, bonding toward the agent, and overall evaluation of the interaction. Results The findings suggested that seniors evaluated the agent more positively (liked the agent more and evaluated it as more realistic, attractive, and sociable) and showed more bonding toward the agent regardless of the appearance than did students. In addition, interaction effects were found. Seniors reported the highest usage intention for the cartoon-stylized humanoid agent, whereas students reported the lowest usage intention for this agent. The same pattern was found for participant bonding with the agent. Seniors showed more bonding when interacting with the cartoon-stylized humanoid agent or voice only agent, whereas students showed the least bonding when interacting with the cartoon-stylized humanoid agent. Conclusions In health-related interactions, target group–related differences exist with regard to a virtual assistant’s appearance. When elderly individuals are the target group, a humanoid virtual assistant might trigger specific social responses and be evaluated more positively at least in short-term interactions.

scholarly journals Age-Related Differences in the Evaluation of a Virtual Health Agent’s Appearance and Embodiment in a Health-Related Interaction: Experimental Lab Study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Straßmann ◽  
Nicole C Krämer ◽  
Hendrik Buschmeier ◽  
Stefan Kopp
Keyword(s):  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Virtual Agents ◽  
Social Responses ◽  
Healthy Behaviors ◽  
Human Agent ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Agent Interaction ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Overall Evaluation

BACKGROUND Assistive technologies have become more important owing to the aging population, especially when they foster healthy behaviors. Because of their natural interface, virtual agents are promising assistants for people in need of support. To engage people during an interaction with these technologies, such assistants need to match the users´ needs and preferences, especially with regard to social outcomes. OBJECTIVE Prior research has already determined the importance of an agent’s appearance in a human-agent interaction. As seniors can particularly benefit from the use of virtual agents to maintain their autonomy, it is important to investigate their special needs. However, there are almost no studies focusing on age-related differences with regard to appearance effects. METHODS A 2×4 between-subjects design was used to investigate the age-related differences of appearance effects in a human-agent interaction. In this study, 46 seniors and 84 students interacted in a health scenario with a virtual agent, whose appearance varied (cartoon-stylized humanoid agent, cartoon-stylized machine-like agent, more realistic humanoid agent, and nonembodied agent [voice only]). After the interaction, participants reported on the evaluation of the agent, usage intention, perceived presence of the agent, bonding toward the agent, and overall evaluation of the interaction. RESULTS The findings suggested that seniors evaluated the agent more positively (liked the agent more and evaluated it as more realistic, attractive, and sociable) and showed more bonding toward the agent regardless of the appearance than did students. In addition, interaction effects were found. Seniors reported the highest usage intention for the cartoon-stylized humanoid agent, whereas students reported the lowest usage intention for this agent. The same pattern was found for participant bonding with the agent. Seniors showed more bonding when interacting with the cartoon-stylized humanoid agent or voice only agent, whereas students showed the least bonding when interacting with the cartoon-stylized humanoid agent. CONCLUSIONS In health-related interactions, target group–related differences exist with regard to a virtual assistant’s appearance. When elderly individuals are the target group, a humanoid virtual assistant might trigger specific social responses and be evaluated more positively at least in short-term interactions.

scholarly journals Adaptation Mechanisms in Human–Agent Interaction: Effects on User’s Impressions and Engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Biancardi ◽  
Soumia Dermouche ◽  
Catherine Pelachaud
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Virtual Agents ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Adaptive Agents ◽  
Human Agent ◽  
Adaptation Mechanisms ◽  
Agent Interaction ◽  
The Impact

Adaptation is a key mechanism in human–human interaction. In our work, we aim at endowing embodied conversational agents with the ability to adapt their behavior when interacting with a human interlocutor. With the goal to better understand what the main challenges concerning adaptive agents are, we investigated the effects on the user’s experience of three adaptation models for a virtual agent. The adaptation mechanisms performed by the agent take into account the user’s reaction and learn how to adapt on the fly during the interaction. The agent’s adaptation is realized at several levels (i.e., at the behavioral, conversational, and signal levels) and focuses on improving the user’s experience along different dimensions (i.e., the user’s impressions and engagement). In our first two studies, we aim to learn the agent’s multimodal behaviors and conversational strategies to dynamically optimize the user’s engagement and impressions of the agent, by taking them as input during the learning process. In our third study, our model takes both the user’s and the agent’s past behavior as input and predicts the agent’s next behavior. Our adaptation models have been evaluated through experimental studies sharing the same interacting scenario, with the agent playing the role of a virtual museum guide. These studies showed the impact of the adaptation mechanisms on the user’s experience of the interaction and their perception of the agent. Interacting with an adaptive agent vs. a nonadaptive agent tended to be more positively perceived. Finally, the effects of people’s a priori about virtual agents found in our studies highlight the importance of taking into account the user’s expectancies in human–agent interaction.

Emerging Technologies for Aging in Place

2008 ◽  
pp. 513-518
Author(s):  
Shirley Ann Becker ◽  
Frank Webbe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
The United States ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Age Related ◽  
United States Economy ◽  
Health Related

Similar to other nations, the United States faces a critical challenge in dealing with an aging population that has unprecedented life expectancies. Emerging technologies offer the hope of allowing older adults to remain in their homes longer by empowering individuals to manage daily activities while dealing with chronic health conditions and age-related diseases. These technologies increasingly target a home environment whereby on a regular basis an individual can obtain assistance in performing daily living activities, stay connected to family and friends, manage medication, and be monitored for health-related changes. As important as these assistive technologies are for individuals and families, their potential for positively impacting the United States economy by changing the model of healthcare delivery is equally huge.

Emerging Technologies for Aging in Place

2011 ◽  
pp. 2047-2053
Author(s):  
Shirley Ann Becker ◽  
Frank Webbe
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
The United States ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Age Related ◽  
United States Economy ◽  
Health Related

Similar to other nations, the United States faces a critical challenge in dealing with an aging population that has unprecedented life expectancies. Emerging technologies offer the hope of allowing older adults to remain in their homes longer by empowering individuals to manage daily activities while dealing with chronic health conditions and age-related diseases. These technologies increasingly target a home environment whereby on a regular basis an individual can obtain assistance in performing daily living activities, stay connected to family and friends, manage medication, and be monitored for health-related changes. As important as these assistive technologies are for individuals and families, their potential for positively impacting the United States economy by changing the model of healthcare delivery is equally huge.

scholarly journals Intelligent Blended Agents: Reality–Virtuality Interaction with Artificially Intelligent Embodied Virtual Humans

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Susanne Schmidt ◽  
Oscar Ariza ◽  
Frank Steinicke
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Agents ◽  
User Study ◽  
Physical Simulation ◽  
Body Representation ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Communication Process ◽  
Virtual Agents ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Human Agent ◽  
Agent Interaction

Intelligent virtual agents (VAs) already support us in a variety of everyday tasks such as setting up appointments, monitoring our fitness, and organizing messages. Adding a humanoid body representation to these mostly voice-based VAs has enormous potential to enrich the human–agent communication process but, at the same time, raises expectations regarding the agent’s social, spatial, and intelligent behavior. Embodied VAs may be perceived as less human-like if they, for example, do not return eye contact, or do not show a plausible collision behavior with the physical surroundings. In this article, we introduce a new model that extends human-to-human interaction to interaction with intelligent agents and covers different multi-modal and multi-sensory channels that are required to create believable embodied VAs. Theoretical considerations of the different aspects of human–agent interaction are complemented by implementation guidelines to support the practical development of such agents. In this context, we particularly emphasize one aspect that is distinctive of embodied agents, i.e., interaction with the physical world. Since previous studies indicated negative effects of implausible physical behavior of VAs, we were interested in the initial responses of users when interacting with a VA with virtual–physical capabilities for the first time. We conducted a pilot study to collect subjective feedback regarding two forms of virtual–physical interactions. Both were designed and implemented in preparation of the user study, and represent two different approaches to virtual–physical manipulations: (i) displacement of a robotic object, and (ii) writing on a physical sheet of paper with thermochromic ink. The qualitative results of the study indicate positive effects of agents with virtual–physical capabilities in terms of their perceived realism as well as evoked emotional responses of the users. We conclude with an outlook on possible future developments of different aspects of human–agent interaction in general and the physical simulation in particular.

scholarly journals How to recruit inactive residents for lifestyle interventions: participants’ characteristics based on various recruitment strategies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Smit ◽  
Karlijn Leenaars ◽  
Annemarie Wagemakers ◽  
Koos van der Velden ◽  
Gerard Molleman
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Recruitment Strategy ◽  
Recruitment Strategies ◽  
Lifestyle Interventions ◽  
Health Related Quality ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related

Summary Care Sport Connectors (CSCs) have been appointed to create a connection between primary care and physical activity (PA) sectors to stimulate inactive residents into becoming physically active. Adequate recruitment strategies are necessary to reach the intended target group in order to foster the sustainability of lifestyle interventions. The objective of this study is to explore PA behavior and health characteristics of the target group reached by CSCs and if these characteristics differ between participants when grouped based on how they were recruited. Participants from lifestyle interventions were included between September 2014 and April 2016 using a purposive sampling method. Participants were recruited through CSCs via public relations (n = 135), a personal letter (n = 136), or a referral (n = 98) and compared based on their PA level, health-related quality of life, motivation, self-efficacy, morbidity and health-related fitness. Scores were analyzed with a multi-level (mixed model) analysis measured before the intervention. The three groups were different in PA level (p = 0.002). The outcomes regarding health-related quality of life, motivation, and number of somatic disorders were also significantly different for the three groups, except for the categories of mental health (p = 0.145) and self-efficacy (p = 0.464). For all dimensions, the referral group scored the least favorable. The investment in time and money for an active recruitment strategy like referrals is worthwhile because it provides CSCs the opportunity to reach people who are inactive and at risk of chronic disease. Future studies are necessary to reveal the effect on PA levels and health in the long-term.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document