Design and Technologies for Understanding Older Adults Social Interactions in Retirement Communities

Social interactions in retirement communities’ shared spaces are a key component to preventing social isolation and loneliness among older people. Given the underutilization of these spaces, placing technologies to promote utilization of- and socialization in- shared spaces might improve independence and quality of life among older adults. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design, development, and technology studies conducted for understanding the social interactions of older adults in retirement communities. To understand current use of shared spaces, observational studies were conducted in a retirement community. Moreover, interventions were implemented to evaluate the impact of designed technologies in shared spaces. The results motivate the need for an automated behavioral mapping surveillance system to quantify social interactions among older adults and technology interventions in retirement communities’ shared common areas. This paper describes the development of a video-based analysis system for understanding social interactions among older adults in retirement communities. Specific emphasis is given to describing the automated behavioral mapping surveillance system designed to monitor the number, length, and type of interactions of older adults in retirement communities. We hypothesize that social interactions amongst older adults can be detected using video cameras and microphones strategically placed in the environment, and discuss the development of a surveillance system specifically for quantifying social interaction. This study is relevant for the field of social robotics as an example of a realistic application domain.