Natural Interaction between Avatars and Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease

In the last 10 years, few studies have addressed the use of ECAs among older adults with dementia.

“In fact, in the last 10 years, few studies have addressed the use of ECAs among older adults with dementia.”

This framework of 4 weeks of interaction between 20 seniors with dementia and the agent Anne in a home setting is rare in ECA research, which mainly comprises studies on short-term interaction in a controlled environment and smaller sample size enrollment.

“This framework is rare in ECA research, which mainly comprises studies on short-term interaction in a controlled environment [13] and smaller sample size enrollment [7-12].”

The quality of automatic speech recognition and synthesis is still a technical issue and has room for improvement, whereas touch screen modality is almost stable and positively used by people living with dementia.

“Unfortunately, our study confirms that the quality of automatic speech recognition and synthesis is still a technical issue and has room for improvement [7-11], whereas touch screen modality is almost stable and positively used by people living with dementia [3,25,26].”

This study mapped how the readiness level of ECA-based interventions grew across the years, shifting from a display on standard television sets and computer screens to mobile stand-alone solutions such as Anne.

“From a technical point of view, this study mapped how the readiness level of ECA-based interventions grew across the years, shifting from a display on standard television sets [7] and computer screens [8-12] to mobile stand-alone solutions such as in the specific case of Anne.”

Carrasco et al. conducted the first work in which people with dementia actually interacted with an ECA, by pressing buttons (green for 'yes' and red for 'no') on a remote control.

“Carrasco et al. conducted the first work in which people with dementia actually interacted with an ECA, by pressing buttons (green for 'yes' and red for 'no') on a remote control [6].”

The current literature on the use of ECAs by older adults with cognitive impairment does not provide many guidelines for adapting ECA technology for this public.

“However, the current literature on the use of ECAs by older adults with cognitive impairment does not provide many guidelines for adapting ECA technology for this public.”

ECAs have advantages over other kinds of interfaces: naturalness, higher levels of attention, easy understanding, believability, higher motivation, and effectiveness.

“The aforementioned authors have identified the following advantages of ECAs over other kinds of interfaces: naturalness [11, 5, 6], higher levels of attention [10, 11, 5], easy understanding [11, 5], believability [10, 11], higher motivation [10, 12, 13] and effectiveness [10, 11, 5].”

The use of ECAs could improve the accessibility and acceptance of computer-based assistive technologies, compared to graphical user interfaces and voice interfaces, especially for older adults with cognitive impairment.

“Globally, current results [10, 11, 5, 6, 12] lead to the conclusion that the use of ECAs could improve the accessibility and acceptance of computer-based assistive technologies, compared to graphical user interfaces and voice interfaces, especially for older adults with cognitive impairment.”

Several researchers have proposed to use virtual humanoid characters, called ECAs, that are able to interact with a person through verbal and nonverbal communication.

“To do this, several researchers [5, 6, 7, 8, 9] have proposed to use virtual humanoid characters, called Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs), that are able to interact with a person through verbal and nonverbal communication.”

People with MCI or dementia successfully interacted with ECAs, whether through remote control button presses or social-like interaction.

“Lastly, the authors we cited above showed that people with MCI or dementia successfully interacted with ECAs, whether through remote control button presses or social-like interaction.”