The best way to test our prototype would be a study with persons with dementia. Still, testing the robot in a real environment would be very time-consuming, because it is not predictable if and when persons with dementia start wandering. That is out of scoop for our project.
However, we want to get a first impression of how realistic and convincing the provided dialogues and suggested activities are. In a small study with students, who play the role of having dementia, we are observing the interaction with the robot and want to find out how effective it is in preventing people from wandering.

Problem statement and research questions

Goal: How effective is music and dialogue in preventing people with dementia from wandering?

Research Questions (RQ):

1. What percentage of people are kept in? (Quantitative)
2. Can the robot get the participant's mood?
3. Can the robot respond appropriately to the participant's mood?
4. Does the activity that the robot suggests prevent people from wandering/ leaving?
5. How do the participants react to the music?

Method

A between-subject study with students who play the role of having dementia. Data will be collected by observing the participant's body language and the way that they're responding to Pepper.

Participants

20 students who play the role of having dementia. They will be divided into two groups. One group will be interacting with the intelligent (group 1) robot while the other will interact with the unintelligent robot (group 2).
It is assumed that all participants are living at the same care center.
Before they start, they can choose how stubborn they want to be and how progressed their stage of dementia is.

Experimental design

The first question collects quantitative data, where the number of people who were stopped will be counted.
The other RQ's are exploratory research. 

1. Observe the participant's mood and see how the conversation goes. Observe the level of aggression (tone, volume, pace)
2. Observe whether the mood is improved and decision has been changed.
3. Observe how natural the conversation is. (conversation makes sense)
4. Participants fill out questionnaire. 

Tasks

Because our participants only play the role of having dementia, we will give them a level of stubbornness/ willpower with they are trying to leave. We try to detect this level with the robot.
Participants from group 1 (using intelligent robot) will also be given one of the reasons to leave, listed below: 

1. going to the supermarket
2. going to the office 
3. going for a walk

The participant should be on their way out of the building. The participant and robot have an interaction where robot is trying to convince the participant to stay inside. 

Measures

We will be measuring this physically and emotionally.
Physically: whether the participant was stopped from leaving the building or not.
Emotionally: evaluate their responses to the robot and observe their mood before and after the interaction.

Procedure

1. Starts with a short briefing on what we expect from the participant. 
2. Let them fill out the informed consent form.
3. Ask the participant about their background.
4. Let the user interact with the robot (Either version A or B)
5. While user is interacting, we will be observing the conversation and their moods. 
6. Let user fill out the questionnaire about their experience after the interaction. 

Material

Pepper, laptop, door, and music. 

Results

Discussion

Conclusions