A Smart, Caring, Interactive Chair Designed for Improving Emotional Support and Parent-Child Interactions to Promote Sustainable Relationships Between Elderly and Other Family Members

Abstract

In this study, we implemented a four-stage service design process to analyze the home-based interaction behavior between elderly and other family members to identify hidden needs for strengthening inter-generational relationships and creating harmony as a turning point for new product innovations in home-based interactive devices. In the demand exploration stage and demand definition stage, context inquiry and service modeling were applied to understand the intergenerational relationship between the elderly and other family members and the potential needs and expectations of family interactions. The overall demand mainly includes four points: (1) the improvement in inter-generational relationships requires the active care of family members, (2) the improvement in inter-generational emotional interactions requires accurate mastery of parental responsibilities, (3) the chairing design of the living room can be used to understand and document parental life practice, and (4) big data parental lifestyle records can be analyzed. Based on hidden demands, a smart care interactive system (SCIS) with a chair was designed for improving emotional interactions and parent-child interaction between the elderly and other family members. The results of the verification experiment show that the smart care interactive chair (SCIC) can significantly help the elderly with intergenerational relationships in terms of emotional support and parent-child interactions. The family emotional support and parent-child interactions are the foundation of the sustainability of family relationships and the cornerstone of social stability.