Professor TSAI Tsai Hsuan

Profile

Professor Tsai-Hsuan Tsai (TT) earned a PhD degree in Design (Multimedia) from De Montfort University, UK, in 2006. She has dedicated herself to academic research since then. She currently works at the MSc/ PhD program in Medical Technologies & Innovations (2021/08- Present), the Department of Industrial Design (2007/08-Present), College of Management, Chang Gung University; in addition, she is the funder of the Digital Media Lab (2007/08- Present), the director of the Design Center, Chang Gung University, (2017/02-Present), Adjunct Research Fellow of Department of Rehabilitation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou (2019/01-Present), Adjunct Professor of Department of Visual Communication Design, Ming-Chi University of Technology (2016/08-Present), Executive Director of the Medical Design Association of Taiwan (2018/09-Present), and Chairman of the Information and Publications Committee of the Medical Design Association of Taiwan (2019/01-Present). She once also assumed the role of the director of the Exhibition Research Group at Formosa Plastic Group Museum, Taiwan (2008/08-2015/08).

Facing the aging population and ICT development for older adults, Professor Tsai set the following major research directions: “Seniors Studies and Gerontechnology Applications”, “mHealth Pomotion Product/Service Design”, “AI+HI Research and Human-Machine Intertion Design”and “Usability study”. The projects placed significant emphasis on cross-disciplinary research and cooperation. Under the research topic of caring about seniors’ mental and physical wellness and the need for socializing, her cross-disciplinary research team used the “mHealth applications to promote active and healthy ageing”as the main theme, introduced a users’ experience study, and successfully developed a smart community platform for seniors, an intergenerational family communications platform, and a social media platform for enhancing socialization in the elderly. Other research projects that she has been involved in include participating in research by the Taiwan Chang Gung Memorial Hospital team on“an integrated physical fitness testing system (iFit) to help older adults manage and promote their health and mitigate the effects of aging”; integrating traditional medical examinations and accommodating story scenarios into game design; and providing exercise prescriptions after rehabilitation tests. These key research and technologies included research on seniors’ needs for social interactions and a service model; interface design and operation modes based on user experience and need; social interaction design to promote social connections; analysis and operation of social interactions that integrate personal scale and emotion theories; and system evaluation and usability tests.

Topic: Use of a Virtual Assistant in improving Mood and Stimulating Social Interaction and Communication for Older People With Dementia

The purpose of this study is to stimulate patients with dementia and increase language expression through the introduction of nostalgic therapy by the AI assistant Babo. It will be to slow down the  deterioration of the patient's expression ability. At the same time, it is verified that the AI assistant Babo is the expression ability of the elderly with dementia and the improvement and practicality of the combined dementia. To build the AI voice assistant (Dr. Chang) AI assistant-Babo App design and system, including: (1) Multi-Object Reality Experience (MORE) voice simulation technology; (2) Natural and clear voice experience; (3) Customization of exclusive voice; (4) Diversified connection services; (5) Customization of exclusive characters. According to the International Dementia (ADI) Global Dementia Report 2019, it is estimated that there are more than 5 million people with dementia worldwide. According to the 2020 statistical survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the current population of Taiwan suffering from dementia is approaching 290,000. The pressure of providing care for patients with dementia is very huge, because dementia has two main points, one is the deterioration of mental function; the other is the degree of degeneration is more serious than the general severity, and these will seriously affect the health and well-being of caregivers. With the development of the disease, the patient's cognition and expression ability will gradually decline, and the more serious the behavioral disorder, the more professional care is needed. With the emergence of socially assistive robots, patients do not need human supervision when interacting with robots, which can relieve the stress level of caregivers. The purpose of this study is to stimulate patients and increase language expression through the introduction of nostalgic therapy by the AI assistant Babo. So as to slow down the deterioration of the patient's expression ability. At the same time, it is verified that the AI assistant Babo is the expression ability of the elderly with dementia and the improvement and practicality of the combined dementia.