An approach to exploiting personal memories in humanoid robots serious games for cognitive stimulation of older adults

One of the goals of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions is to be able to stimulate the cognitive resources of older adults. An innovative way to address such stimulation is the use of serious games delivered through humanoid robots. Such devices are based on Internet of Things technologies since they are collections of sensors and actuators in a human shape. Serious games delivered through humanoid robots can provide an engaging way to perform exercises useful for training human memory, attention, processing, and planning activities. This paper presents an approach to supporting cognitive stimulation based on personal memories. The humanoid robot can exhibit different behaviours through different modalities, and propose the games in a way personalized to specific individuals' requirements, preferences, abilities, and motivations, which can vary among older adults, and even dynamically evolve over time for the same person depending on changing user needs and health conditions.