Technology to support learning communication method with people with cognitive impairment

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K02195
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 08020:Social welfare-related
• Research Institution: Shonan Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Yuasa Masahide 湘南工科大学, 情報学部, 教授 (80385492)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 本多 博彦 湘南工科大学, 工学部, 教授 (90339797) ; 片上 大輔 東京工芸大学, 工学部, 教授 (90345372)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 擬人化キャラクタ / コミュニケーション / 認知症 / 多人数会話

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Owing to the increase in the population of elderly people, the number of people suffering from mild cognitive impairment is increasing in several countries. Furthermore, family members of people with mild cognitive impairment, such as reduced function of memory, reasoning, and decision-making, undergo severe stress owing to difficulties in communicating with them. This study proposes a tool wherein an animated character resembles the behavior of elderly people with mild cognitive impairment in different scenarios to teach how to communicate with them. Fundamental experiments were conducted to confirm the validity of the proposal tool, and results showed that the tool successfully helped users learn how to communicate with elderly people with mild cognitive impairment. Furthermore, we demonstrated the advantages of using an animated character to depict the behavior of people with mild cognitive impairment. The experimental system is available on the website.

Free Research Field

ヒューマンインタフェース

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

認知症者と接触することが少ない者（子供や若者など）は対応方法を身につける機会が少ないことから，パソコンやスマホを用いて気軽に接し方を体験できるシステムは有用である．多数の実験協力者を使ったシステムの検証実験も進め，システムの体験を通して （記憶障害等を伴う相手に対しての）特別な接し方の必要性を学んだ，とする感想コメント等が得られ，接し方を学べるシステム開発に至ったと考える．システムはWebサイトにて公開しており，システム開発で得られたノウハウや知識を様々な人に提供できる．