Abstract
The concept of narrative is important for elder care. The elderly enjoy being reminded about past experience and having conversations about their life history. However, there are common reports of frustration that carers do not know the elderly person in the way they family do. Further, with staff turnover, it is difficult for a single staff member to provide meaningful conversations about the older person's life history. In this paper we describe possibilities for technology advances using avatars and robots to provide this service. An elderly person or her/his family could answer questions regarding past experiences. This could involve family, care staff or students on placements. Answers to the questions are compiled into a composite view of the person's experiences. An avatar could use this knowledge to converse with the elderly person in a meaningful way. Possible benefits are that the process may enhance family involvement and personalized care that does not require additional resources or specialised skills. The same knowledge could be inserted into a humanoid robot whereby the robot converses with the elder person. In this presentation we provide an example of story-capture and a conversation with the avatar. We discuss the efficacy of the approach and compare it with the possibilities of using a humanoid robot in engaging older people in conversations about their past.