Carnegie Mellon University
I am exploring user acceptance of agents in care networks of older adults, their family members and care partners, and their extended networks. The work focuses especially on agency and disclosure; in particular, how agents report on one family member’s behavior to other concerned family members and the agency of an agent to restrict a user’s behavior (e.g., make a car not function, make a stove not function, keep exits from a home from unlocking/opening). The project also considers boundaries and opportunities surrounding agents that facilitate interaction between older adults and people in their networks (e.g., calling a spouse, or declining to repeatedly call a friend or child). The goal is to gain a detailed understanding of what is and is not acceptable for agents to do at different points along an elder’s aging process -- including changes in cognitive abilities, if they are experienced -- with a focus on scenarios when the agent might perform a behavior that addresses (or fails to address) the multiple (and perhaps conflicting) needs of multiple people.