Open AccessA User Study on the Feasibility and Acceptance of Delivering Physical Activity Programs to Older Adults through Conversational Agents
Author(s) -
Jessie Chin,
Kelly Quinn,
Naoko Muramatsu,
David X. Márquez
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society annual meeting/proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society ... annual meeting
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.207
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1541-9312
pISSN - 1071-1813
DOI - 10.1177/1071181320641010
Subject(s) - conversation , psychology , physical activity , applied psychology , virtual agent , assistive technology , medical education , computer science , multimedia , human–computer interaction , medicine , physical therapy , communication
The implementation of evidence-based physical activity (PA) programs for older adults is limited in part due to the administration-related personnel costs. The rapid growth of the off-the-shelf smart speakers, conversational agents (CAs), demonstrates the potential of scalable delivery of PA programs to older adults at home. We implemented a PA virtual coach based on an evidence-based PA program on a Google Home device, and conducted a user study to examine how older adults interact with the virtual coach. Results suggested that all older adults were able to complete the PA program with guidance from the virtual coach, and showed high acceptance and intentions to use CAs in the future. Analyses on conversation turn-taking further suggested that all older adults (including 80% novice CAs users) experienced minimum difficulty talking with the PA virtual coach. Relationships among age, technology acceptance, conversation patterns and the perceived sociability of CAs are also discussed.