The high level of noise pollution affecting the areas between ports and logistic platforms repres... more The high level of noise pollution affecting the areas between ports and logistic platforms represents a problem that can be faced from different points of view. Acoustic monitoring, mapping, short-term measurements, port and road traffic flows analyses can give useful indications on the strategies to be proposed for a better management of the problem. A survey campaign through the preparation of questionnaires to be submitted to the population exposed to noise in the back-port areas will help to better understand the subjective point of view. The paper analyses a sample of questions suitable for the specific research, chosen as part of the wide database of questionnaires internationally proposed for subjective investigations. The preliminary results of a first data collection campaign are considered to verify the adequacy of the number, the type of questions, and the type of sample noise used for the survey. The questionnaire will be optimized to be distributed in the TRIPLO project...
During the last few years, due to the aging of the population, many scientists have developed ICT... more During the last few years, due to the aging of the population, many scientists have developed ICT tools to offer elderly people an independent life at home as long as possible. Most of these researchers focused their efforts on problem solving without adequate care to the agreeability and/or the acceptability of these ICT objects for their users. These resulting artifacts will hardly be used in real life by the users for which they have been developed. In this paper, we will present an experiment done on 202 elderly people over 65 on the acceptability and the likeness features a caregiver robot must have. Starting from a classification of 25 different real robot pictures and the associated questionnaire on the quality of seventeen adjectives describing the first and the last robot selected, our work tried to better understand the hidden and implicit motivations that lead to the acceptance or the rejection of a robot and found some interesting results for appealing or unpleasant feat...
The paper presents the work carried out within NINFA (iNtelligent Integrated Network For Aged peo... more The paper presents the work carried out within NINFA (iNtelligent Integrated Network For Aged people), a project for the wellbeing of the elderly people at home. The impact of new technologies on elderly people is evaluated with respect to the three main topics faced by NINFA. NINFA was structured into three main topics: (1) active user engagement from the very beginning of the planning stage: the use of specially designed questionnaires to evaluate the acceptability of new technology in general and robot caregiver specifically; (2) assessment of the well-being through non-invasive techniques: natural language processing for language change monitoring in elderly subjects; (3) automated assessment of motor and cognitive functions at home: systems to deliver tests and exergames through user interfaces compliant with elderly subjects. The analysis shows that there is no a priori closure to support the technology, but it must not be invasive and must allow social interactions. The study of speech transcripts shows that a large variations in the number of words used to describe the same situation could be a sign on the onset of cognitive impairments. The specifically designed systems highlight, after the training period, significant improvements in the performances of the participants and a satisfaction with regards to the systems usability. The outcomes of NINFA project highlight some important aspects of the relationship between elderly people and new technologies concerning: engagement and acceptability, assessment of the wellbeing and of the modifications of motor, cognitive and language functions.
During the last few years, due to the aging of the population, many scientists have developed ICT... more During the last few years, due to the aging of the population, many scientists have developed ICT tools to offer elderly people an independent life at home as long as possible. Most of these researchers focused their efforts on problem solving without adequate care to the agreeability and/or the acceptability of these ICT objects for their users. These resulting artifacts will hardly be used in real life by the users for which they have been developed. In this paper, we will present an experiment done on 202 over 65 elderly people on the acceptability and the likeness features a caregiver robot must have. From the classification and analysis of the emotions elicited by the physical/appearance characteristics of 25 different real robot pictures we found some interesting results for appealing or unpleasant features for caregiver robot design.
The high level of noise pollution affecting the areas between ports and logistic platforms repres... more The high level of noise pollution affecting the areas between ports and logistic platforms represents a problem that can be faced from different points of view. Acoustic monitoring, mapping, short-term measurements, port and road traffic flows analyses can give useful indications on the strategies to be proposed for a better management of the problem. A survey campaign through the preparation of questionnaires to be submitted to the population exposed to noise in the back-port areas will help to better understand the subjective point of view. The paper analyses a sample of questions suitable for the specific research, chosen as part of the wide database of questionnaires internationally proposed for subjective investigations. The preliminary results of a first data collection campaign are considered to verify the adequacy of the number, the type of questions, and the type of sample noise used for the survey. The questionnaire will be optimized to be distributed in the TRIPLO project...
During the last few years, due to the aging of the population, many scientists have developed ICT... more During the last few years, due to the aging of the population, many scientists have developed ICT tools to offer elderly people an independent life at home as long as possible. Most of these researchers focused their efforts on problem solving without adequate care to the agreeability and/or the acceptability of these ICT objects for their users. These resulting artifacts will hardly be used in real life by the users for which they have been developed. In this paper, we will present an experiment done on 202 elderly people over 65 on the acceptability and the likeness features a caregiver robot must have. Starting from a classification of 25 different real robot pictures and the associated questionnaire on the quality of seventeen adjectives describing the first and the last robot selected, our work tried to better understand the hidden and implicit motivations that lead to the acceptance or the rejection of a robot and found some interesting results for appealing or unpleasant feat...
The paper presents the work carried out within NINFA (iNtelligent Integrated Network For Aged peo... more The paper presents the work carried out within NINFA (iNtelligent Integrated Network For Aged people), a project for the wellbeing of the elderly people at home. The impact of new technologies on elderly people is evaluated with respect to the three main topics faced by NINFA. NINFA was structured into three main topics: (1) active user engagement from the very beginning of the planning stage: the use of specially designed questionnaires to evaluate the acceptability of new technology in general and robot caregiver specifically; (2) assessment of the well-being through non-invasive techniques: natural language processing for language change monitoring in elderly subjects; (3) automated assessment of motor and cognitive functions at home: systems to deliver tests and exergames through user interfaces compliant with elderly subjects. The analysis shows that there is no a priori closure to support the technology, but it must not be invasive and must allow social interactions. The study of speech transcripts shows that a large variations in the number of words used to describe the same situation could be a sign on the onset of cognitive impairments. The specifically designed systems highlight, after the training period, significant improvements in the performances of the participants and a satisfaction with regards to the systems usability. The outcomes of NINFA project highlight some important aspects of the relationship between elderly people and new technologies concerning: engagement and acceptability, assessment of the wellbeing and of the modifications of motor, cognitive and language functions.
During the last few years, due to the aging of the population, many scientists have developed ICT... more During the last few years, due to the aging of the population, many scientists have developed ICT tools to offer elderly people an independent life at home as long as possible. Most of these researchers focused their efforts on problem solving without adequate care to the agreeability and/or the acceptability of these ICT objects for their users. These resulting artifacts will hardly be used in real life by the users for which they have been developed. In this paper, we will present an experiment done on 202 over 65 elderly people on the acceptability and the likeness features a caregiver robot must have. From the classification and analysis of the emotions elicited by the physical/appearance characteristics of 25 different real robot pictures we found some interesting results for appealing or unpleasant features for caregiver robot design.
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