A long-term experiment of robot assisted activity for elderly people has been conducted at a health service facility for the aged since Aug. 2003. Three therapeutic seal robots, Paro, were introduced there. This paper describes the results of the experiment for one year. Face scales that consist of illustrations of person's faces were used to evaluate person's moods. In addition, Geriatric Depression Scales were used to measure person's depression by questionnaires. As the results, feelings of the elderly people were improved by interaction with the seal robots.

A long-term experiment of robot assisted activity for elderly people has been conducted at a health service facility for the aged since Aug. 2003. Two therapeutic seal robots, Paro, were introduced there. This paper describes the first interim report of the experiment for three months. Face scales that consist of illustrations of person's faces were used to evaluate person's moods. In addition, geriatric depression scales were used to measure person's depression by questionnaires. As the results, feelings of the elderly people were improved by interaction with the seal robots.

Mental commit robots have been developed to provide psychological, physiological, and social effects in human beings through physical interaction. The appearance of these robots is designed to emulate real animals such as a cat or a seal. The seal robot was developed especially for therapeutic applications. Seal robots have been applied to assisting the activity of the elderly at a day service center. In order to investigate the effects of seal robots on elderly people, their mood was evaluated using face scales (which express moods by identifying the appropriate facial illustration) and questionnaires. Changes in reaction to stress in the elderly was measured using urinary tests. In addition, stress of nursing staff was investigated. Their mental state was evaluated using a "burnout scale." The day service center was provided with seal robots for five weeks. As a result, the feelings of elderly people improved by the interaction with the robots. Urinary tests showed that their ability to overcome stress were also improved. Moreover, the stress levels of the nursing staff decreased because the elderly people required less supervision when interacting with the robots. Consequently, the seal robots were judged to be useful at institutions for the elderly, such as the day service center.

We have been developing mental commit robots that provide psychological, physiological, and social effects to human beings through physical interaction. The appearances of these robots look like real animals such as cat and seal. The seal robot was developed especially for therapy. We have applied seal robots to assisting activity of elderly people at a health service facility for the aged. In order to investigate psychological and social effects of seal robots to the elderly people, we evaluated elderly people's moods by face scales (which express person's moods by illustration of person's faces) and Profile of Mood States (which measures person's moods by questionnaires). Seal robots were provided into the facility for three weeks. As the results, feelings of elderly people were improved by interaction with the seal robots.

We have been developing mental commit robots that provide psychological, physiological, and social effects to human beings through physical interaction. The appearances of these robots look like real animals such as cat and seal. The seal robot was developed especially for therapy. We have applied seal robots to assisting activity of elderly people at a health service facility for the aged. In order to investigate psychological, physiological and social effects of seal robots to the elderly people, we evaluated elderly people's moods by Profile of Mood States (which measures person's moods by questionnaires) and urinary tests. Seal robots were provided into the facility for three weeks. As the results, moods of elderly people were improved by interaction with the seal robots.

We have been developing mental commit robots that provide psychological, physiological, and social effects to human beings through physical interaction. The appearances of these robots look like real animals such as cats and seals. We have applied mental commit robots to assisting the activity of elderly people at a day service center. In order to investigate the effect of mental commit robots on the elderly people, we evaluated elderly people's mood by face scales and questionnaires. In addition, the stress of nursing staff was investigated. We evaluated their mental poverty by a "burnout scale." Mental commit robots were provided in the day service center for five weeks. Results showed that feelings of elderly people were improved by interaction with the robots. Moreover, the nursing staff's mental poverty decreased because the elderly people spent their time by themselves with the robots. Consequently, mental commit robots are useful at elderly institutions like the day service center.

We have developed mental commit robots that can provide psychological, physiological and social effects to human beings through physical interaction. The appearances of these robots look like real animals such as cats and seals. We have applied the mental commit robots to assist activities of the elderly people at a day service center. In order to investigate the effect of the robots on the elderly people, and to analyze the factors that influence them, we evaluated elderly people's mood by questionnaires, and investigated their experience of breeding pets, interaction with the robots and so on. The mental commit robots were introduced at the day service center for five weeks. Results show that the feelings of the elderly people were improved by interaction with the robots. As for the analysis of factors that bring mental effects to the elderly, we found the "time of touch divided by number of touch" in 2/sup nd/ week, and "experiences of breeding pets" in 5/sup th/ week. We conclude that mental commit robots are useful at elderly institutions like the day service center, and the factors of mental effects on elderly people changed from freshness of stimuli of the robots to feelings of breeding the robots like real animals.