Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
we developed two slightly different types of questionnaires for the formal and informal
caregivers, while for the third type of client we designed a questionnaire (
Influence on
Relationship Expectation
) on the expectation on G
IRAFF
as a means to ease and support
the remote communication and consequently the social relationship.
During the following step (S1), for all three types of clients we will use: (a) question-
naires based on the SUMI inventory [14] to assess the
usability
of the client software:
(b) will ask participant to keep a
diary
to register the “salient” events of the visit through
telepresence in terms of encountered problems, good features and so on.
During the subsequent step (S2), in addition to the diary that clients have to keep
along the whole experience with the robot, we make a first assessment of ability of
G
IRAFF
to ease the support (or the communication) between the client and the end user
through the
Support Assessment
and
Impact on Relationship Assessment
questionnaires.
In addition, during this phase we will also use the Temple Presence Inventory [15] that
is a tool to measure dimensions of (tele)presence.
At step S3 we use the Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale, PANAS, [16], and a
final structured interview to assess the overall experience in terms of the most relevant
variables considered in the study.
After two months from the robot removal, S4 will allow assessing the impact of its
absence through the
Support Assessment
questionnaire.
End User Side.
For the end user receiving the robot we followed a similar approach,
but we focused on some additional variables that is worth dwelling on. Specifically, we
measure (a) the
perceived loneliness
through the UCLA Loneliness Scale [17], which
was developed to assess subjective feelings of loneliness or social isolation;(b) the per-
ceived health status through the Short Form Health Survey (SF12) [18]; (c) the Multidi-
mensional Scale of Perceived Social Support [19]; (d) Geriatric Depression Scale [20]:
a modified version of the Health Service Satisfaction Inventory. Finally the Almere [21]
model will allow assessing dimensions of technology acceptance.
In the table, measures highlighted in bold will ensure the repeated measures thus
allowing to observe the influence of changes over time. It is worth underscoring how
this evaluation methodology will allow monitoring the human-robot interaction over
time, thus contributing to understand the long term impact of a fully deployed robotic
solution.
The actual implementation of this plan in three different European countries will also
support a cross-cultural analysis, continuing some work started on this specific topics
[22]. The following subsection briefly reports on the current status of the Italian test
sites.
3.3
First Test Sites Running
Two test sites have started in Italy that are representative of the
family-member-elderly
user category.
Te s t S i t e s 1 .
A couple of old people living in the countryside near Rome are the end
users of this test site (see Figure 5). The man has reduced mobility, while the woman
has problems with her sight. They are quite independent although their health condition
