Design for ageing
Our group investigates how new technologies can be designed and used to support people’s wellbeing and social connectedness in later life.
In today’s world, more people are living longer and staying active into later life. New technologies are being designed to not only support health, fitness, and monitoring as people get older, but to also support social participation and engagement in enriching and enjoyable activities. Our research aims to establish a nuanced understanding of the role of new technologies in the lives of older adults. In addition, we examine how new technologies can and are being used to augment psychosocial caregiving in aged care settings. In these settings, technologies need to be designed and deployed carefully and sensitively in order to benefit, and not burden, caregivers and people living in aged care.
Projects
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Social robots for older people
This project aims to examine the ethical and social implications of using social robots and virtual assistants to provide support for older adults who live independently at home. Drawing on field trial findings, the project will produce an ethics framework to inform decision-making about the use of social robots/assistants in aged care settings.
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Technologies for enrichment in old age
This project will investigate older adults’s experiences with emerging technologies, such as virtual reality, social robots, and online games, which are believed to offer social benefits for those in advanced old age. Through in-depth investigations, the project aims to identify strategies for good practice in the design and deployment of these emerging technologies for enrichment in old age.
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Ageing and avatars
This project aims to identify how NUI technologies can be designed and used to facilitate active social participation for older people constrained by limited mobility.
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Death and technology
A long-running program of research exploring how digital technologies are increasingly used to commemorate, memorialise and dispose of the dead. Conducted by human-computer interaction, anthropology and social science researchers from the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford in collaboration with industry partners.
Contact
People
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Frank Vetere, Professor -
Steven Baker, Research Fellow -
Simon Coghlan, Research Fellow -
Romina Carrasco, Research Fellow in Music Therapy Application Design
News
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Keeping aged care residents connected
People in aged care homes were already isolated before the COVID-19 crisis but University of Melbourne research finds new technology can help better connect them
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IDL researchers to present at esteemed CHI 2020 conference
The 2020 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020), is taking place between 25–30 April in Oahu, Hawai’i, USA.
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IDL researchers contribute to successful OzCHI’19
Presenters and attendees of the 31st Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (OzCHI’19) met on Perth’s sandy shores between 3–5 December 2019.
- Digital Technology and the lonely
Loneliness is an increasing problem for older people. Social technology can connect them to family and friends. Dr Jenny Waycott joins a panel of speakers on Future Tense, ABC RN radio.
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Abusing a robot won’t hurt it, but it could make you a crueller person
Robots are becoming more common in our lives. And while they may not have “feelings”, perhaps the way we treat them reflects more on our character than we previously thought.
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Our researchers take home two awards at UbiComp 2019
PhD Candidate Zhanna Sarsenbayeva received the Gaetano Borriello Outstanding Student Award and a Distinguished Paper Award was received by a group of researchers.
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HCI Lab Open House
To mark the completion of the new lab, we held an Open House.
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Our research to feature at CSCW 2019
We are thrilled to announce a number of successful paper submissions to CSCW 2019
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CHI 2019: Strong participation by the University of Melbourne
The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, also known as CHI 2019, is the flagship annual conference..
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Room for innovation: lab upgrades
Human-Computer Interaction has received a tech-powered update to our research workspace for graduate researchers.