What if a Robot Could Help me Care for my Parents? Using Photo Elicitation with Pre-users of Robot Care for the Elderly
Location
3030
Format Type
Paper
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
January 2016
End Date
January 2016
Abstract
As life expectancy increases so does the need for caretaking of the elderly population. Oftentimes, adult family members, also know as informal caregivers, assume this role by providing various levels of care from helping with shopping, feeding, and bathing to 24/7 in-home care. With the rapid advancements in technology, the thought of employing a robot to help caregivers and care recipients is no longer reserved for the science fiction fandom. While robots could offer potential benefits to the elderly such as assistance with daily activities, monitoring, and companionship, there are also potential risks such as reduced or loss of human interaction, privacy concerns, and deception. Studies focusing on technical and user requirements are many; however, there are fewer studies related to the ethical issues that impact robot design.
The purpose of this presentation is to describe how photo elicitation will be used during semi-structured interviews with informal caregivers (e.g., family member or close friend) and their elderly care recipients (e.g., spouse, parent, or sibling) to guide a discussion about potential benefits and risks of robot care in an in-home setting. Photo elicitation is a visual technique that is used to evoke thoughts, feelings, imagination, and “what ifs.” Issues pertaining to image selection, digital photo creation using apps and mobile technologies, use of images during the interview, and ethical considerations for this technique will be discussed.
What if a Robot Could Help me Care for my Parents? Using Photo Elicitation with Pre-users of Robot Care for the Elderly
3030
As life expectancy increases so does the need for caretaking of the elderly population. Oftentimes, adult family members, also know as informal caregivers, assume this role by providing various levels of care from helping with shopping, feeding, and bathing to 24/7 in-home care. With the rapid advancements in technology, the thought of employing a robot to help caregivers and care recipients is no longer reserved for the science fiction fandom. While robots could offer potential benefits to the elderly such as assistance with daily activities, monitoring, and companionship, there are also potential risks such as reduced or loss of human interaction, privacy concerns, and deception. Studies focusing on technical and user requirements are many; however, there are fewer studies related to the ethical issues that impact robot design.
The purpose of this presentation is to describe how photo elicitation will be used during semi-structured interviews with informal caregivers (e.g., family member or close friend) and their elderly care recipients (e.g., spouse, parent, or sibling) to guide a discussion about potential benefits and risks of robot care in an in-home setting. Photo elicitation is a visual technique that is used to evoke thoughts, feelings, imagination, and “what ifs.” Issues pertaining to image selection, digital photo creation using apps and mobile technologies, use of images during the interview, and ethical considerations for this technique will be discussed.
Comments
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