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Cara: A Smart Plush Toy for Support During COVID-19

Published: 08 March 2021 Publication History

Abstract

COVID-19 has disrupted the way we spend time with our friends and family. Cara is a robot designed to connect isolated persons to their loved ones during the pandemic through three different modes: daily podcasts of audio messages, real-time music sharing, and LED lights that show someone they are being remembered. Cara is a rechargeable, soft stuffed animal that lights up and talks. Individuals can interact with it through a web application.

References

[1]
2020. The Loneliness of COVID-19: How to Deal With Your New Life. https://hartfordhealthcare.org/about-us/news-press/news-detail?articleid=27215 Cara: A Smart Plush Toy for Support During COVID-19 HRI'21, March, 2021, Boulder, Colorado USA.
[2]
MD. Lee, J. 2020.A Neuropsychological Exploration of Zoom Fatigue. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychological-exploration-zoomfatigue
[3]
V. Schellekens. 2020. Loneliness and belonging: Exploring experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic in psycho-oncology. Psycho-Oncology 29(9), 1399--1401. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.5459
[4]
MD PhD Wagner, K. D. 2020. New Findings About Children's Mental Health During COVID-19. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/new-findingschildren-mental-health-covid-19
[5]
2016. 5 Ways to Fight Loneliness and Isolation. https://www.health.harvard.edu/aging/5-ways-to-fight-loneliness-and-isolation

Cited By

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  • (2024)ChiParCo and ParChiCo: Connecting Children and Parents Remotely With Tailored Tangible Communication ToolsProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3655803(424-435)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024

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  1. Cara: A Smart Plush Toy for Support During COVID-19

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    HRI '21 Companion: Companion of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
    March 2021
    756 pages
    ISBN:9781450382908
    DOI:10.1145/3434074
    • General Chairs:
    • Cindy Bethel,
    • Ana Paiva,
    • Program Chairs:
    • Elizabeth Broadbent,
    • David Feil-Seifer,
    • Daniel Szafir
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 08 March 2021

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    Author Tags

    1. social isolation
    2. social robotics

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    Overall Acceptance Rate 192 of 519 submissions, 37%

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    HRI '25
    ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
    March 4 - 6, 2025
    Melbourne , VIC , Australia

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    • (2024)ChiParCo and ParChiCo: Connecting Children and Parents Remotely With Tailored Tangible Communication ToolsProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3655803(424-435)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024

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