Wednesday, June 27, 2012

At the ISG*ISARC conference

At the moment I'm at the ISG conference in Eindhoven. The ISARC part of the conference is all about robots, which I find fascinating. With fellow academics I discussed the question whether the majority of older people are still likely to be out of touch with technology in 20years time (even though by then the majority will be proficient Internet users)? There is the possibility that other technologies have been developed where the older person (including me by then) may not feel the need of wanting to learn. What is your view? Tomorrow I will be talking about my research: the Teletalker - an online window to connect older adults. With this research I investigate how to make online face to face communication easier for everyone... in particular for technological novices. From 11th June to 15th June I conducted field research with the Teletalker between Middlesex University and AgeUk Barnet. I'm still analyzing my observations, but here is a little video to give you a feeling for how it went.