Hong Kong elderly centre gets a robot receptionist who answers questions, gives health tips and compliments visitors too
- Design centre team’s friendly talking robot makes for fun, livelier interactions with elderly
- City’s rapidly ageing population demands fresh ideas to improve elderly centres, experts say
Visitors to a retirees’ social club in a Kwun Tong public housing estate are greeted by Tung Zai, the voice-activated robot receptionist.
They can ask a question in Cantonese about the day’s activities at the centre by pressing a button on its head.
Press a button on its stomach, and Tung Zai will make a random comment, offering healthy lifestyle tips, perhaps, or deliver a compliment such as: “You are very pretty!”
It can also tell jokes and quote Chinese poetry.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before, I like it so much,” said Chu Sau-lin, 66, a regular visitor to the Fong Shiu Yee Neighbourhood Elderly Centre in Sau Mau Ping Estate. “I wish I could buy one to play with myself.”
“Tung Zai is all about communication and making it easy for the elderly,” said Calvin Luk Wing-hong, the institute’s acting director.
With half the city’s population expected to be over 50 years old in 15 years’ time, he said, existing centres for the elderly needed to prepare for more visitors.
They include the retirees’ centre founded in 1989 to provide leisure facilities to the over-60s from Sau Mau Ping Estate.
Home for the elderly where human touch has made all the difference
The idea for the robot came about as the centre’s employees and users wanted to solve communication problems that cropped up regularly.
Sharing information about the centre could be difficult as the elderly members preferred speaking to someone, rather than reading text messages or looking at posters about coming events.
The members, mostly women over 70, also complained about the lack of novelty at the centre.
“We wanted to find a way to communicate new information in a way they would enjoy,” said Alice Leung Bick-king, head of the community services division at the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals that oversees the centre.
Her team thought that having an interactive robot which answered questions would make it easier and more enjoyable for members than having to look for one of the centre’s employees.
The JCDISI team developed the idea with support from design consultancy group Eureka, and held three workshops in late 2019 before the robot was built last year. Also involved were Roborn, a local tech company, and Tints, a personalised product maker.
Tung Zai relies on artificial intelligence to interpret key words from spoken requests or questions, and is programmed to carry out various short conversations.
During a week of trials in August, members of the elderly centre tested the robot in the centre’s reception area by pressing its buttons and speaking to it.
Many participants were enthusiastic about the robot, which displays cartoon facial expressions on a screen and responds with a cheerful, childlike voice.
But some became frustrated and lost interest when the robot did not understand their questions immediately.
Charities help elderly left in Hong Kong by children who emigrate
Based on their feedback, the JCDISI team is planning to improve the robot’s vocabulary and may move it to a more social spot in the centre, where visitors will feel comfortable speaking to it.
“As long as the members like Tung Zai, we want to bring joy to them,” Leung said.
Among the robot’s more enthusiastic users was retiree Chu, a mother of two, who took part in the trial sessions.
“It can be dull here sometimes, so it’s good to have this thing,” she said. “It’s like having a little pet.”
