A Minimal Design of a Human Infant Presence: A Case Study toward Interactive Doll Therapy for Older Adults with Dementia

Abstract

In this section, we outline a minimal design approach to build an infant-like robot for interactive doll therapy, which fosters emotional interactions for seniors with dementia. By focusing on expressing the most fundamental human-like features, our approach stimulates the imagination of these individuals, thereby promoting positive engagement with the robot. Using this approach, we developed HIRO, a baby-sized robot with an abstract body representation without facial features. By utilizing the recorded voice of an actual human infant, the robot’s human-likeness is enhanced and facilitates positive interactions with seniors with dementia. Even though we did not find a significant difference between HIRO and an infant-like robot with a smiling face, a field study indicated that HIRO was well accepted by seniors with dementia and fostered positive interactions.