Prior-to-request and request behaviors within elderly day care: Implications for developing service robots for use in multiparty settings

The rapidly expanding elderly population in Japan and other industrialized countries has posed an enormous challenge to the systems of healthcare that serve elderly citizens. This study examines naturally occurring interaction within elderly day care in Japan, and discusses the implications for developing robotic systems that can provide service in elderly care contexts. The interaction analysis focuses on prior-to-request and request behaviors involving elderly visitors and caregivers in multiparty settings. In particular, it delineates the ways caregivers’ displays of availability affects elderly visitors’ behavior prior to initiating a request, revealing that visitors observe caregivers prior to initiating a request, and initiation is contingent upon caregivers’ displayed availability. The findings are discussed in relation to our work in designing an autonomous and remote- controlled robotic system that can be employed in elderly day care centers and other service contexts.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Liberal Arts, Saitama University, Japan, Japan

   Keiichi Yamazaki & Michie Kawashima

2. Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Japan, Japan

   Yoshinori Kuno, Naonori Akiya & Matthew Burdelski

3. Department of Media Architecture, Future University-Hakodate, Japan

   Akiko Yamazaki

4. Institute of Engineering Mechanics and Systems, University of Tsukuba, Japan

   Hideaki Kuzuoka

Editors and Affiliations

1. University of Limerick, Ireland

   Liam J. Bannon

2. Technical University of Vienna, Austria

   Ina Wagner

3. University of Saskatchewan, S7N 5C9, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

   Carl Gutwin

4. Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK

   Richard H. R. Harper

5. IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark

   Kjeld Schmidt

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