Impression investigation of Babyloid toward verification as doll therapy robot

Abstract

In line with the effects of Japan's aging society with fewer children, the number of elderly with dementia who live alone and without care is increasing, therefore at-home care is beginning to be required. Doll therapy is a way of at-home dementia care. Doll therapy can help improve mental status of the elderly, because their logical and rational thinking is activated by imaging the child care experience with feeling and emotion at the times. In this research, we consider using the baby type robot Babyloid for doll therapy. As a first step of this research, we investigated whether elderly in a health and welfare facility accept Babyloid.