Abstract
In 2020, the number of people aged 60 years and older outnumbered children younger than 5 years and this trend is growing at a rapid pace. Therefore, elders are at higher risk of social isolation and loneliness due to the busy lifestyle of families in the current society. According to recent studies, conversational agents have a significant impact on the emotional and physical well-being and independence of elders in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) environments. Chatto, a conversational agent with an animated avatar, aims to enhance the emotional well-being of elders by establishing an empathetic connection through interactive conversations.
This paper focuses on the implementation and benefits of Chatto for the elder population. The proposed solution offers numerous benefits for elders, including increased social interaction, emotional support, and real-time monitoring of their well-being. Utilizing advanced techniques to recognize facial expressions and analyze voice sentiment, Chatto offers a dynamic and interactive avatar. A key innovation of the proposed solution is the ability for caregivers to personalize the user experience by selecting which of Chatto’s animations are displayed and when resulting in a highly personalized and engaging experience. Usability tests with diverse elder users demonstrate that Chatto is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and offers an enjoyable experience. Future improvements, informed by user feedback, will further enhance the avatar’s intuitiveness and impact on the emotional well-being of elders.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), I.P., under the project UIDB/04524/2020 and was partially supported by Portuguese National funds through FITEC-Programa Interface with reference CIT “INOV-INESC Inovação-Financiamento Base”. The authors would also like to acknowledge FlatIcon for providing the icons used in the architecture diagram image.
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Mendes, C., Pereira, R., Ribeiro, J., Rodrigues, N., Pereira, A. (2023). Chatto: An Emotionally Intelligent Avatar for Elderly Care in Ambient Assisted Living. In: Novais, P., et al. Ambient Intelligence – Software and Applications – 14th International Symposium on Ambient Intelligence. ISAmI 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 770. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43461-7_10
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