University of Coimbra develops serious game for cognitive stimulation of older people
The pilot test was carried out as part of the EuroAGE+ project, which aims to promote active ageing through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and, in particular, Social Assistive Robots (SARs).
Pedro Almeida, a Master's student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at FCTUC, has developed a serious game for the cognitive stimulation of elderly people, which has been successfully tested on the elderly people at Cáritas Diocesana de Coimbra.
The pilot test was carried out as part of the EuroAGE+ project, which aims to promote active ageing through innovative initiatives based on ICT and, in particular, Social Assistive Robots (SARs).
The game is based on a SAR capable of interacting and communicating with people through speech. This work is part of Almeida’s thesis: 'Social robot interaction with humans through natural language,' supervised by DEEC professors Rui P. Rocha and Fernando Perdigão.
"The robot can speak with synchronized lip movements and understand the user’s responses. The serious game is an interactive system where the robot narrates a story, asks questions, and lets older adults choose the storyline based on their answers and preferences," explains Rui P. Rocha, the project's supervisor.
"The story told by the robot is generated by artificial intelligence and is always unique. It is created based on the user's preferences and personal data, which are entered into the system through an interface designed for occupational therapists, allowing the therapist to tailor each story to the specific needs of the user," Rocha explains. He adds that "the complexity of the story's vocabulary, plot and even the speed at which it is delivered are automatically adjusted by the robot according to the cognitive level of the older adult for whom it is intended".
According to the researcher from FCTUC's Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR), the pilot test, conducted with 14 older people at Cáritas Diocesana de Coimbra, was quite successful. “Both the participants in this initial experiment and the occupational therapists who led the storytelling sessions rated the serious game very positively. This feedback highlights the high potential of the work done and the ongoing efforts in this project,” he concludes.
The project EuroAGE+: International Network for Research, Innovation and Technology Transfer to Promote Active Ageing, which has received a total of 1.6 million euros in funding from the European Union, involves several Portuguese and Spanish entities, namely ISR/FCTUC, Universidad de Extremadura, Universidad de Valladolid, Centro de Cirugía de Mínima Invasión Jesús Usón, Junta de Extremadura, Cluster Sociosanitario de Extremadura, Instituto Politécnico da Guarda and Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco.