Keywords

1 Introduction

The success in medical and multidisciplinary research has resulted in the longevity in human age. Longevity in human age has caused an increase in the elderly population, and this condition becomes a new phenomenon. With the longer lifespan, the proportion of the society become aged. Aged society has its own problem, and this issue should anticipate seriously especially in Taiwan. Specifically, Taiwan is most likely will progress to super-aged society from aged society with only take seven years [1].

Research has shown that several potential problems for aging society are loneliness, social isolation and the decrease of physical activities which directly affect the health and quality of life of the elderly and can lead to increased cost in health care [2,3,4,5].

Social circle reduction could happen for elderly since they lose the opportunity to meet colleague on a daily basis in their retirement period, the gradually decreasing physical strength due to their physically aged, and also their grown-up children are too busy to accompany. According to research by Marcelino et al., Information Communication Technology (ICT) can allow people to interact without being limited by time and space. Therefore, if this technology can be used in the elderly, there will be an effective way to overcome their loneliness or reduction in the social circle. Unfortunately, due to the lack of technological skills, it is often difficult for older people to operate applications on smartphones and tablets [5]. However, the elderly could improve their technical skills, and this already proven by the training about direct navigation and social network systems in the context of digital literacy in the study conducted by Castilla et al. [6].

Research regarding skill improvement on elderly shows that, they are not refused to learn. Elderly are also comfortable with technology and still eager to learn. This finding indicates that the new medium is not the barrier as long as the stimulus, engagement, and the introduction provides the information needed by the older adults [7]. The momentum to use the new medium with technology have hope now since the new generation of older adults is the baby boomers who have a different profile than the current generation of older adults. Other research shows that the percentage of this new generation of older adults in Taiwan have experience with computers and internet four to five times than the current generation of older adults, so the popularity of mobile phones and household broadband internet connection has reduced the technological barriers of the new generation of older people [8].

A study done by Takahashi et al. showed that the decreasing of the social circle and non-active physical activities could anticipate by using ICT. They designed a group walking program using smartphone application that can detect synchronized beacon had set before in several public facilities. In order to increase the motivation of the participants during the group walking, this application also implemented gamification such as points, badges, and rankings [9]. There are two interesting points found in this study. The first is this ICT based design can gather elderly lives in community-dwelling that are relatively isolate in their home, and the second is similar hobby or interest is the trigger for elderly to being friendly through group walking.

The previous study was emphasizing on how to increase the social circle and to create new friends, but they can’t ensure that this new acquaintance have a common interest and also there are no proposed topic to begin the conversation. However, the study confirms that similar hobby is the desirable quality to make a friend. Therefore, this study tries to enhance this opportunity to upload a favorable image to verify that they have the same interest or value. Image recognition’s similarity chose in this study to help to create a common topic to begin the conversation.

The purpose of this research is to solve the problem of decreasing the social circle of the elderly with the technology that familiar with them. By uploading a favorable image, the elderly could find the others with similar interest. The pair with similar interest will be more natural to have a common topic and become friends. In order to do this research, we conducted a semi-structured interview with the target users to collect information. The purpose of this interview is to obtain a preliminary insight from the potential user. The second step was to build a possible prototype, focusing on the suitable user interface design and simple workflow for the elderly. The third step was to test the prototype to the potential target user with the stress on ease of use and usability of the application.

2 Research Objective

The initial goal of this research was to design and develop applications on smartphones, providing a platform for the elderly to expand the new social network with common interests and help them to meet new people.

3 Theoretical Background

3.1 Loneliness and Social Isolation

Retired people are gradually decreasing their social network due to the limited physical function are shallowing their daily activities. The impact of longevity and aging population is more people to live alone and causing social isolation [3]. Loneliness and social isolation directly affect the health and quality of life of the elderly and also increase the cost of health care [4]. The systematic literature review provided by Khosravi and Ghapanchi [10] identified eight targeted issues, that are: dependent life, the risk of falls, chronic disease, dementia, social isolation, depression, poor health, and poor drug treatment. In this systematic review, from 2000 to 2015, at least 34 studies tried to solve the social isolation or loneliness of older people proves that this issue should get serious attention.

The conclusion in the same systematic review [4] stated that the concepts of loneliness and social isolation are often used interchangeably in literature and practice, but the precise definitions are not identical. If social isolation refers to the objective and quantitative degree of network size and frequency of contacts, then loneliness is a subjective sense of isolation and satisfaction with the frequency of connections, dissatisfied intimacy, and social needs. Both of these are related to the lack of social needs [4, 11], which could lead to their physical and mental health.

3.2 Opportunities for ICT

In recent years, ICT helped many aspects of the lives of older people in innovative and effective ways. Some research reported that assistive technology has a positive impact on improving the lives of older people [3, 10].

A systematic review of the literature provided by Khosravi and Ghapanchi [10] identified six ICT clusters: (1) universal ICT, (2) robotics, (3) telemedicine, (4) sensor technology, and (5) drug therapy manage apps, and (6) video games. The technologies that have been applied to alleviate social isolation are: (1) ICT, (2) video games, (3) support chat rooms, (4) remote care (5) 3D virtual environments, (6) robots, (7) Social networking sites, (8) personal reminders and social management systems [4].

The systematic review of the information indicates that loneliness and social isolation will lead to a reduction in the social circle of the elderly and for a new generation of elderly who are familiar with the technology, such problems will have a better chance to solve. This premise argued by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which recommended to support the elderly to get online and increasing awareness in the public sector for the issue to adapt technology-based service that will help the problem. [3].

3.3 Interest and Social Network

A study shows that from a social point of view, the principle of homogeneity constitutes various types of connections, and people are more likely to be close to people who are similar to themselves, so people with similar interests are more likely to become friends [12].

In the real-world environment, it is difficult to find friends with similar interests and background personality, but in the online world, because of the vast number of users, it is not hard to find friends with similar interests [13].

The interesting map is a network map built by people’s common interests. Pinterest is an example of the interest map website. By 2012, it has become the third largest social networking site in the United States.

Some studies have investigated online dating, and the reason for online dating is because of the loading factors of new friends who can find similar interests up to 0.77. One of the main reasons to motivate people to search for online friends is that users can use the Internet to find Friends who are willing to share their interests [14].

4 Method

In order to solve the reduction of social circle problem in the elderly, this study designed by qualitative approach base on the elderly insight—the steps of the study consist of three steps.

First, the preliminary information gathered using semi-structured interview to the target users regarding: (1) the usage of smartphone for them, (2) the daily activities after retired or in their daily lives, (3) the opinion regarding social circle reduction in their late-life phase; (4) the idea about getting new social circle, (5) the ability to obtain or make picture using their smartphone.

Second, the team proposed several possible application concepts using the consideration of the information gathered from the target users and the limitations of the elderly derived from literature reviews.

Third, the team building application prototyping using Python programming language and tested to the elderly for the application refinement.

4.1 Semi Structured Interview

Semi-structured interview conducted to several elderly in Tainan, Taiwan, so the team have a better understanding of the elderly concern. The inclusions criteria for the respondents were: (1) 65 years old or above, (2) using a smartphone in their daily lives, (3) retired, (4) fluent in the Chinese language, and (5) considered healthy as they still performed exercises in their ages.

There were six main questions asked as follows: (1) Loneliness in older adults, (2) Activities in everyday life, (3) the idea of getting new friends, (4) the frequency using smartphone in daily life, (5) the idea to get permanent gallery for their favorite photos, (6) the idea about getting new friend which have same interest.

In the investigation, eight older adults (4 men and four women), with an average age of 68 years old were used as participants. From the interview, here is the insight gathered:

  1. (1)

    Most elderly didn’t feel lonely, but they feel that there were not many things to do, so they feel bored. This situation is overcome by finding activities to fill their spare times,

  2. (2)

    Most elderly choose to plant, take photos, read books, at home or nearby. It is seldom for them to meet their friend because of one or another reason,

  3. (3)

    Most elderly find to get new friends or acquaintances were interesting,

  4. (4)

    Most elderly used their mobile phones every day, usually using communication application, such as Facebook and Line,

  5. (5)

    Most older adults were excited to get the idea of having permanent photos of the picture they took because they do not feel fluent in managing their photos,

  6. (6)

    Most elderly preferred to have new friends with the same preference as they believed it would make them easier to share the same topic interest.

  7. (7)

    Most elderly would like to see more photos considerably same interest as theirs. The owners of the similar photos are preferable to become their new acquaintance online since their limited ‘real’ friend might not have similar interest.

In conclusions, most of the elderly with mobile phones use it every day and are willing to make new friends, especially with the one with the same interests. The reason why the elderly isn’t having as many friends as they before are because of the limitation of the activities, and the limitation of the topic to begin the conversation. Furthermore, respondents positively thought that it is feasible to meet new people with photos. With this opportunity, they enthusiastic to help people with the same area of interest and fascinate by the pictures take or get in the process.

After the pension, the elderly’s situation is a bit different, if previously they usually travel and chat with the old friend, then in this period they rarely have the opportunity to meet the others.

4.2 Application Concept

Based on the conclusions of semi-structured interviews and literature reviews, it is found that the daily activities of the elderly are mostly concentrated in sports, family, cooking, and traveling. The common activities while doing their daily activities is to use photo records, and most elderly people also like to share photos. Therefore, this study proposes a mobile app called PiChat, which provides opportunities for the elderly to anticipating the social circle with photos. The elderly can upload their favorite and most interesting pictures every day, and the system will calculate the same interest with the similarity of the images. Using the real-time similarity calculation, the paired user will know the most similar person and having the opportunities to connect. By using this method, the elderly will be geographically restricted, and similar pictures in the application are more natural for them to begin the topic to converse.

PiChat’s user interface designed as simple as possible, to avoid a complicated operation. Every page in the display has one primary function to prevent the elderly from confusing. Regarding the limitation of the elderly’s vision, green color chose as the dominant color. In addition, PiChat also considering the cyber-crime issue, so to connect or pair user, there are gradual steps to open the information provided by the elderly. Figure 1 shows the PiChat’s user interface and the main consideration for the elderly vision limitation and ease of use.

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Loading page, registered and login page of PiChat (left to right: (1) green as main color; (2) one-page single function; (3) step-by-step/progressive connection (Color figure online)

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For the first connection, each other could only praise or comment the uploaded photos. The default setting for people to directly connect is three times. That means on four-times paired, the two connected people could start a chat to each other. This default setting could customize by the elderly, so they will comfortably expand their social circle.

The key features in PiChat are:

  1. (1)

    Photo albums with the most favorite photos (assuming the elderly only upload their best or favorite photos).

  2. (2)

    Pairing older people who have the same photos and interests.

  3. (3)

    Interactive topics and patterns with other elderly.

  4. (4)

    The current application design will progressively open the connection between the paired elderly, but the setting can be adjusted manually. The adjustment features implemented to make sure that the elderly feel comfortable while expanding their social circle.

4.3 How to Use PiChat

Considering the features of older people and making them easy to use, the application interface is designed to be as simple as possible and requires minimal login steps. With PiChat, the elderly can add new friends and chat with them every day, they can collect pictures they like, and the system helps them make a unique photo album. Figure 2 shows the workflow of PiChat.

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Workflow of PiChat

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  1. (1)

    After the user install the application, they need to input the necessary information, such as: name, gender, age, uploading a photo, et cetera (for first time only). This stage is called account registration. If the user is already registered, the user can choose ‘log in’.

  2. (2)

    In the ‘Today Matching’ screen, the user can select a favorite photo and upload it. The user can select it from the photo library or take a photo directly. After uploading, the system will automatically match them to other users. The picture is matched for the first time. The user can press the other party’s photo to like it. The preset of two parties are paired and pressed three times or more to choose whether to connect with the other party.

  3. (3)

    The historical photo page allows the user to view previously uploaded images, as well as matching similar images and their owners. To contact other photo owners again, press the button to connect.

  4. (4)

    The history page allows the user to see all the calls and pairing records, or the user can choose to contact again.

  5. (5)

    On the setting page, the user can change the basic information, pair it several times before contacting (Figs. 3, 4 and 5).

    Fig. 3.
    figure 3

    Interface design of PiChat (registered and match today pages)

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    Fig. 4.
    figure 4

    Interface design of PiChat (take a photo and match person)

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    Fig. 5.
    figure 5

    Interface design of PiChat (photo gallery and history record)

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4.4 Calculating Picture Similarities

The main algorithm in PiChat is to calculate the similarity in the uploaded image. PiChat designed with Python programming language. Python chooses as the programming language because of the modest and easy to use syntax. Python was integrated with Open CV to emphasize the readability and uses standard keywords. The integration between Open CV and Python provides a common infrastructure for computer vision application and accelerate machine learning used in commercial products. Open CV-Python also able to focus on real-time image processing. Among of all features, color features are the most commonly used in the image recognition, so this application selected colors as the identification method, with the following steps:

  1. (1)

    Convert the picture to a probability density function.

  2. (2)

    Using the calcHist() method in open CV.

  3. (3)

    Calculate the consistency of all histograms.

Color data in images can use histograms to represent color histograms that are very effective for many practical uses because they can shrink and change views steadily. Open CV-Python has an essential technique to conduct simple histogram checking. To create a histogram, a clustering algorithm, the k-means, is used. The k-means clustering algorithm collects n data points into clusters with the most recent mean. The average of each group is called the “centroid” or “center.” In general, the k-mean was applied to isolate the cluster of the first n data points. Data points within a particular cluster are considered “more comparable,” and data points to each other indicate locations with different clusters.

4.5 Preliminary Evaluation

PiChat’s prototype was evaluated through the expertise of the committee’s experts with results are as follows:

  1. (1)

    This application should be more comprehensive in considering how to avoid cybercrime, and the process of pairing users should be more cautious.

  2. (2)

    The image is a way to link the interests of two people primarily.

  3. (3)

    Adding other data and information of the elderly, so the mode of connecting the two highs may not necessarily be through the picture.

5 Conclusion and Suggestion

After retirement, the elderly most likely will have a smaller social circle. Due to factors such as single life, declining physical function and a limited range of activities, the social circle will gradually decrease, which leads to problems such as boredom. Issues such as boredom in everyday lives will take effect on the health of the elderly and cause further problem. The health and quality of life of the elderly, also the ability to use smartphones by the baby-boomers elderly open the opportunity to overcome the social circle reduction of the elderly. This premise is the background for this research to create a smartphone application called PiChat to increase the possibility of expanding the social circle of the elderly. However, the design must consider the ease of use, the possible technology, and the danger regarding the cyber-crime issue. PiChat’s prototype will be refine with an addition to pairing with photos, collectible photos, location and other information at the same time, increasing the matching conditions, so that the matched elderly people have higher accuracy in similar living circles.