Browsing by Author "Aghel Manesh, Setareh"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Medi, Social Human-Robot Interaction in Pediatric Health
    (2024-09-19) Aghel Manesh, Setareh; Sharlin, Ehud; Oehlberg, Lora; Cheatham, Michelle; Elhajj, Reda S.
    This research explores how we can help a person – particularly a child – in a real-world stressful situation, such as a medical procedure, cope with pain and anxiety by using an interactive, empathetic robot as a social companion. To demonstrate this, we designed and implemented behaviours for a humanoid robot called Medi through iterative prototyping, testing, and refining. We then tested Medi’s behaviours in situ during a blood draw procedure at Alberta Children’s Hospital: our goal (and thesis) was to see if Medi could help children overcome the stress and pain associated with the blood test and consequently improve their overall experience. Using a Wizard of Oz methodology, we had Medi engage the child in an affectionate conversation using physical and verbal interactions. Between the iterative design process and the testing at the hospital, we ran just under a hundred study sessions with 97 participants. We gathered and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data by collecting questionnaires and videotaping the sessions, where our results generally show that an empathetic interactive social robot such as Medi does indeed help children cope with pain and anxiety and improve their experience.