Enjoyment, intention to use and actual use of a conversational robot by elderly people

In this paper we explore the concept of enjoyment as a possible factor influencing acceptance of robotic technology by elderly people. We describe an experiment with a conversational robot and elderly users (n=30) that incorporates both a test session and a long term user observation. The experiment did confirm the hypothesis that perceived enjoyment has an effect on the intention to use a robotic system. Furthermore, findings show that the general assumption in technology acceptance models that intention to use predicts actual use is also applicable to this specific technology used by elderly people.