| Abstract: | Visual impairment (VI) affects physical, psychological, and emotional well-being and social life as well. VI has become a global challenge, especially for developing countries. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of VI in human-robot interaction (HRI) across different level of vision status (i.e. mild, moderate, severe) and demographic factors (i.e. gender and age). This cross-sectional exploratory study involved 23 Taiwanese students with VI (12 females, 11 males), ranging in age from 12 to 19 years old, who interacted with two service robots, Alpha 2 and Zenbo. In general, the result showed no marked difference among participants across difference levels of VI in social participation with humanoid robots. The functionality of SOS Calling was perceived as higher importance by participants with severe level of VI than participants with milder ones. As for gender, males demonstrated stronger interest than females. In terms of age, younger participants (12-15 years old) indicated more liking than the older ones (16-19 years old). In addition, participants responded a slight increment of affection towards the functionality of Chit Chat on Zenbo after an application known as Caring Mode Conversation was developed and deployed, which increased Zenbo’s richness in chatting and be more caring and empathetic in conversation.
Keyword: visual impairment, impact, demographic factors, human-robot interaction, social participation, empathetic |
