Older adults, a growing demographic, face an increased risk of experiencing loneliness and are less exposed to emerging communication technologies. Augmented reality (AR) avatars and telepresence robots have been proposed as tools to foster social connection, yet their suitability for older users remains underexplored. We present an exploratory study with ten healthy older adults who engaged in both conversational and spatial collaboration tasks using AR avatar-mediated communication, robot-mediated communication, and face-to-face interaction. We collected self-reported measures of co-presence, social presence, closeness, uncanny valley, preferences, and open feedback. Our findings suggest that telepresence robots enhanced co-presence, while avatars were valued for their expressivity and humanlike qualities. Task type influenced co-presence in spatial collaboration only during communication using the telepresence robot. Other measures, such as social presence and closeness, were unaffected by task type or representation. While neither technology outperformed face-to-face interaction, both were positively received, underscoring their potential to address the social needs of older adults and highlighting the importance of enhancing nonverbal expressivity, particularly nonverbal cues in mediated communication. Ultimately, our results contribute to the fundamental understanding of mediated communication with older adults, motivating further empirical work to confirm and extend these findings.

Telepresence robots that allow communication between older adults and their remotely located social contacts can foster social integration. The present laboratory test study explores older adults’ successful use of a telepresence robot (Research Question 1 [RQ1]), as well as their perceived enjoyment (RQ2), perceived ease of use (RQ3), perceived usefulness (RQ4), perceived social presence (RQ5), and intention to use (RQ6) a telepresence robot for robot-mediated communication (RMC). Semi-structured interviews, observations, and questionnaires were applied with a group of N = 14 older adults living in Germany. Participants completed a navigational task (as remote users) and an interpersonal communication task (as local users). Results show older adults used the telepresence robot successfully (RQ1) during the tasks. Furthermore, in interviews, older adults described their perceived enjoyment (RQ2), perceived ease of use (RQ3), and perceived usefulness (RQ4) during RMC as generally high. Perceived social presence (RQ5) during RMC was generally described as high, with RMC being considered a viable substitute when face-to-face communication is not possible. Finally, only two participants (2/14) had no intention to use (RQ6) a telepresence robot in the long term. Future design recommendations are provided, such as adapting the telepresence robot’s functions to older adults physical, psychological, and social conditions.

Avatars and telepresence robots have long received attention for remote communication. However, the specific nature of their physicality, expressiveness, and mobility may affect their usefulness for different tasks. This work compares using an avatar (presented in augmented reality) and a telepresence robot to Face-to-Face (F2F) communication during different communication tasks: free conversation, negotiation, and referential communication with movement. We conducted a user study (split-plot design, N=54) with the type of representation of the conversational partner as the within variable and the communication task as the between variable. Our results show that the type of task, especially referential communication with movement, influenced the perceived attention to nonverbal cues and closeness. Generally, gestures and body movements received the least focus with telepresence robots. Gestures in avatars and F2F drew similar attention, which we attribute to the avatar's tracking fidelity. Gaze received less attention in both avatar- and robot-mediated communication compared to F2F, while facial expressions on the robot's screen heightened attention compared to avatars. These findings advance the fundamental understanding of mediated communication and support researchers and practitioners in shaping the design of communication applications beyond today's video calls.

Telepresence robots can enhance communication experiences by providing a sense of physical presence, embodiment and may evoke co-presence. In spite of that, telepresence robots have not made it fully to consumer markets. In this paper, we investigate how different levels of controlling a telepresence robot (teleoperation, shared control, and no control) influence presence. To this aim, we conducted a study (N=45) where participants were evenly distributed to one of the robot control conditions. The task involved navigating an unknown room and listening to stories told by a person co-located with the robot. We collected subjective impressions of presence using the temple presence inventory and performed a thematic content analysis on a post-experiment interview. Our results suggest nuances in perceived presence under different levels of robot control after performing a thematic content analysis. Copresence can be experienced during teleoperation and shared control, and teleoperation may evoke negative sentiments if it does not provide enough spatial information during navigation. However, our results did not point to significant differences in spatial or social presence. We consider that these findings encourage further discussions on how presence is perceived in robot-mediated communication.