Therapeutic social robots in elderly care: reflections from Japan

In collaboration with the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), Japan, we have initiated a research project to explore the use of therapeutic social robots in elderly care.

In this session, we introduce a faceless huggable robot, 'Hiro-chan', which is used for dementia patients to improve their cognitive deterioration. ATR has been trying to equip Hiro-chan with ChatGPT to express emotions through a sensor embedded in its body. In this session, we show a video demonstration of Hiro-chan as well as other therapeutic social robots for patients with mental illness. We call for interfaculty collaboration to plan a future grant application. Scholars from diverse disciplines are encouraged to attend.

Professor Shintaro Okazaki is Chair in Marketing at King’s Business School. He obtained his PhD. from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. Shintaro has authored over 100 articles and book chapters on advertising and marketing over his career. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Advertising. Before entering academia, he has worked in the industry for more than 20 years, holding a managerial position at a multinational corporation in Tokyo. He served as President of the European Advertising Academy from 2013 to 2015.

Dr Hidenobu Sumioka received the Ph.D. degrees in engineering from Osaka University, Japan. He was a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Since 2012, he has been a researcher at Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratory, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, where he currently leads the Presence Media Research Group. His research interests include human-robot touch interaction, application of social robots to elderly care, influence of social robots in human body and brain activities. He has published extensively in the fields, including Cognitive Computation, Computers in Human Behavior, Frontiers in robotics and AI, Journal of Technology in Human Services, and International Journal of Social Robotics, among others.

This event will be hybrid, with in-person and online attendance available. Please register on Eventbrite.

This event is part of the , running from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 May 2024.

Festival event times may be subject to change. Any changes will be communicated to registrants via Eventbrite emails.

Please note, King's events are free, which means we routinely overbook to allow for no-shows and avoid empty seats. Admission is on a first come, first served basis, so please arrive in good time to avoid disappointment. We will not be able to admit those without tickets or latecomers.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

King's College London, Strand, London, United Kingdom