Proceedings of the 5th IIAE International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Image Processing 2017 A Study on the Impression Received from the Response of a Communication Robot Naruki Shirahamaa*, Satoshi Watanabeb, Fumiko Ikegamic, Naofumi Nakayad and Yukio Morie aDepartment of Creative Engineering, Information and Systems Engineering Course National Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu College 5-20-1, Shii, Kokuraminami-ku, Kitakyushu-shi, Fukuoka 802-0985, Japan bSchool of Health Sciences at Odawara, International University of Health and Welfare 1-2-25, Shiroyama, Odawara-shi, Kanagawa 250-8588, Japan cSchool of Information Studies, Shizuoka Sangyo University 4-1-1, Sugawara-dai, Fujieda-shi, Shizuoka 426-8668, Japan dFaculty of Health Sciences, Tsukuba International University 6-20-1 Manabe Tsuchiura, Ibaraki 300-0051, Japan eDepartment of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Salesian Polytechnic 4-6-8, Oyamagaoka, Machida-shi, Tokyo 194-0215, Japan *Corresponding Author: [email protected] Abstract Keywords: communication robot, visual analog scale, subjective evaluation. In this study, we examine how the conversation with the communication robot affects the user's mental status using 1. Introduction the subjective measurement method called Visual Analog Scale (VAS). The main purpose of this study is to investigate In recent years, the number of mental illness cases in the possibility of mental health improvement using robot and Japan is increasing. In response to this problem, the Ministry IT technology. of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan inspects the stress First, we introduce VAS as a subjective evaluation situation of workers regularly from December 2015, and method and subjective measurement applications “VASpad” informs themselves of the result and urges the awareness of for smartphones. The development of smartphone the state of their own stress in personal mental health disorder. applications in recent years is remarkable, smartphones are The main purpose of this examination system is to inform rapidly becoming familiar to us. In consideration of this them about the result and to notice about the state of stress situation, we propose a transition from conventional VAS on their own and to reduce the risk of individual mental measurement to new VAS measurement that uses health disorder and analyze the results to improve the smartphone. Consequently, it is expected that the burden of workplace environment collectively. tabulation work is reduced. Next, we describe the experiment As mental health care has become more important, using a communication robot. After user talked with the companies are also working on alleviating mental health robot for a few minutes, subjective evaluation was performed problems by utilizing ICT. One of them is improvement of to the user using VASpad for 10 question items. This mental health care using robot. In the conventional market, subjective evaluation was carried out in two ways, the case there were mostly industrial robots for corporations, where the robot's conversation was smooth and the case however many types of robots, from more advanced personal where it was not smooth. robots to relatively inexpensive toy robots, have been Finally, we analyze and consider the experimental developed in recent years. results. The expected results were obtained when the Pet type robots are expected to have an effect like conversation was smooth, however a different trend was animal therapy. However, some problems such as when the obtained when the conversation was not smooth. user is animal phobia or burden on animals are pointed out. DOI: 10.12792/icisip2017.065 356 © 2017 The Institute of Industrial Applications Engineers, Japan. Pet type robot therapy is expected to solve these problems of 2.2 Communication Robot animal therapy. There is a possibility to solve this problem Pepper is one of the famous communication robots. by using robot therapy instead of animal therapy. Assuming Pepper can behave as if it has feelings by itself by "emotion robot therapy that can expect the same effect as animal recognition function" which distinguishes its emotion from therapy, we focused on effects of interacting with users of expression and voice, or original emotion processing communication robots. function. Pepper is provided by SOFTBANK, and although In this research, we investigate the psychological the price is as high as 198,000 JPY, it is spreading not only change that the conversation of the communication robot for corporate users but also for individuals. exerts on the user with a subjective evaluation method called RoBoHoN developed by Sharp is a next generation VAS. From a medical point of view, it is desirable to use the mobile information communication terminal that combines latest high-performance communication robots, however we robot technology and mobile phone technology. As a conduct experiments using inexpensive toy robots in this humanoid robot capable of bipedal walking, it is possible to time. Inexpensive communication robots often do not have realize an extremely small size (about 19.5 cm in height), and smooth conversation due to lack of performance. to carry it in a pocket or a bag. It supports mobile Psychological evaluation on conversation with such a robot communication and has basic functions of smartphone such seems to become important in the future. We try to examine as voice call, mail, camera, liquid crystal touch panel, etc. psychological effects of general conversation with toy robot Because it has a small projector, it can also project photos for users in this study. We focus on the differences between and images. users' reactions obtained from conversations with In this research, we use communication robot OHaNAS communication robots, when the conversation is smooth and developed by Takara Tomy. It has a feature of carrying on a when it is not. conversation by using the NTT's AI server via smartphone application without mounting AI on the main body. Because 2. Robot Therapy it is less expensive than Pepper, RoBoHoN etc. mentioned above, introduction at home is comparatively easy. 2.1 Robot Therapy We assume that a communication robot also has a It is expected that people will feel "fun" and "comfort" therapeutic effect, and perform a subjective evaluation by touching the robot, and people can obtain "mental experiment using this robot. recovery" as a result in robot therapy. In fact, some verification results show that robot therapy brings the same 3. Communication Robot “OHaNAS” effect as animal therapy. These effects are listed below. 3.1 Technical Specification of OHaNAS 1. Psychological effects: cheer and motivate people In this research, OHaNAS (Organized Human Interface 2. Physiological effects: reduce stress, stabilize blood and Network Artificial Intelligence System)(5) is adopted as pressure and pulse a communication robot for experiment. OHaNAS is a 3. Social effect: activating communication (ex) providing communication robot jointly developed by NTT DoCoMo a new source of topic of conversation and Takara Tomy and is the first robot adopted in the world that introduces DoCoMo's natural dialogue platform For example, seal type robot, Paro was used for elderly technology. The size of OHaNAS is compact with 160 mm people at a health service facility for the aged, and the results square, and it can be used like a pet. The weight is also light showed that interaction with Paro improved their moods and as 590 g with batteries, so it is easy to carry. It operates with depression(4). Also, Paro has been introduced in several three AAA batteries or an external power supply. It can be welfare and medical facilities, many pediatric patients who used for about 2 to 3 weeks as it is used for 20 to 30 minutes are mentally stable after the introduction of Paro has been a day. To talk with OHaNAS, it is necessary to install a seen in the Kobe University Hospital Children Center. Robot dedicated application on the smartphone and pair it with therapy has the advantage that it can be used safely in elderly Bluetooth. After making these settings, it is possible to talk people and toddlers because there is no risk of hygiene with OHaNAS with the smartphone connected to the Internet. problems and the risk of biting and barking. 357 When entering the profile specified by the smartphone We have confirmed that there is a difference in tendency application, the robot makes conversation with consideration between LS and VAS in the previous study. The results of to the user. When OHaNAS is started for the first time, it tells comparative experiments on subjective evaluation of VAS us the date, travel knowledge and popular words related to and LS for more than 170 subjects indicate that there is some that date. Because it is linked with DoCoMo’s server, bias between VAS and LS(1). In addition, we introduce OHaNAS respond when the knowledge that can be acquired another measurement method called Faces Pain Scale (FPS) in the net. Figure 1 shows a view of OHaNAS. (see Fig. 2). Instead of expressing pain by words, FPS expresses pain by human facial expressions, which is expressed by several stages from a painless face to a very painful face, and it is frequently used for children because of easiness to understand. There are various studies on comprehensive evaluation of pain such as VAS and FPS(5). Fig. 1 Communication robot "OHaNAS" Fig. 2 An image of Faces Pain Scale 4. Visual Analog Scale 5. Development of VAS app 4.1 Features of VAS 5.1 Development Objectives Due to limitations of space, we show the details of VAS As previously mentioned, VAS is a very sensitive in a previous study(1-3). VAS is a method of measuring the measurement method, and it costs a large amount to obtain degree of pain perceived by himself on a horizontal straight numerical values from question paper and aggregate it. line of 100 mm between 1 and 0 and digitizing the degree by Therefore, we have developed an application with the its length.