Comparing Thermography, GSR and Hear Rate During Stimulated Therapeutic Pet Robot Interaction Among Elderly

Abstract

Interactions with animals have long been known to benefit people emotionally. However, most hospitals and nursing home do not accept animals because of infection, fear and allergy. Robot therapy which uses robots as substitutes has been developed as an alternative for animal assisted therapy. Therapeutic pet robots have been used as tools to improve patients and elderly people’s moods, making them more active and communicative with each other and their care givers. Stress levels have been reduced when elderly interact with therapeutic pets, which have been proven using urine analysis. Affective response of a stimulus from robotic therapeutic pets has been studied by statically correlating the Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Infrared thermo graphic Images (IRT) from subjects under study. The current study investigates human physiological response in terms of infrared thermography (IRT), Galvanic Skin Resistance (GSR) and Heart Rate (HR) with an emphasis on those that are critically relevant to the perception of robotic therapeutic pets. Analysis of the results from the subjects revealed significant correlations between IRT, HR and GSR. Results support the view that the proposed therapeutic pet robots bring physiological benefits for elderly.