Psychological and social effects in long-term experiment of robot assisted activity to elderly people at a health service facility for the aged

A long-term experiment of robot assisted activity for elderly people has been conducted at a health service facility for the aged since Aug. 2003. Two therapeutic seal robots, Paro, were introduced there. This paper describes the first interim report of the experiment for three months. Face scales that consist of illustrations of person´s faces were used to evaluate person´s moods. In addition, geriatric depression scales were used to measure person´s depression by questionnaires. As the results, feelings of the elderly people were improved by interaction with the seal robots.