Research on the Auditory Characteristics of Humanoid Robots to Assist the Older Population with Cognitive Impairments

Older people's healthcare is becoming a prevalent social topic in recent year since the post-war boom babies are entering their retirement ages. The size of the aged population suffering from cognitive decline is increasing since mild cognitive impairment issues are common aging problems. Therefore, the demand for an effective method of reducing the progress of cognitive decline is rising. This paper is a research design including the reasons for conducting this proposed research, the research approaches design and the hypothesis. Generally, the proposed study aims at creating a conceptual framework for implementing interactive robot-assisted cognitive rehabilitation training. The study will focus on the auditory modalities (voice pitch and speech style) of the humanoid robots. The research result is expected to provide an empirical reference for cognitive rehabilitation for older adults using humanoid robots.