Promoting Healthy Aging Using a Robot Support System and Emotion Recognition

The aging population poses challenges such as loneliness, decreased mobility, and medical conditions. To tackle these issues, a proposed robot platform offers personalized well-being behavior change suggestions. Developed through a user-centered process involving surveys and focus groups, and tested with a first prototype, the system is ideal for individuals with "special social needs". Technical results indicate that emotion recognition is valuable, with attention and valence being key metrics, but user acceptance and quality of facial/speech analysis for elderly users remain challenges.