Robot Assisted Sing-along for Groups of Individuals with Dementia: Real-time Engagement Detection and Re-engagement in Human Robot Interaction

Cognitive Impairment, commonly termed as Dementia, affects a large number of older adults. People with dementia (PwD) experience cognitive decline that impacts their ability to perform daily activities and maintain social connections. The number of PwD is expected to rise, and unfortunately, there is still no cure. A number of non drug therapies...

Design of an Integrated Robotic Reminder System for People with Dementia

Several useful technologies to help people with dementia already exist. Robotic pets, for example, have been shown to alleviate negative symptoms associated with dementia. Most robotic pets, however, only have pet-like functionality. This is useful on its own, but adding additional care functionality would be helpful. A different useful tool for...

Levels of joint attention in an interaction between humans and an animal-like social robot

Joint attention is the shared focus multiple people can have on the same object and it is subconsciously used by humans every day. The simple act of verbally or non-verbally pointing out an object to one another, is a form of joint attention. Its use facilitates human cooperation, such as when someone needs to hand over an object to another...