Robots et agents virtuels au service des personnes âgées : une revue de l’actualité en gérontechnologie

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 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.”

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].”