"Pebble" Smart Home Robot

Was es macht

"Pebble", an innovative smart home robot for the elderly, acts as children's incarnation. It integrates into empty-nest seniors' daily life, identifies their emotions, offers tailored companionship.

Deine Inspiration

As the country with the largest elderly population in the world, China has entered a complex stage characterized by deep aging, worsening low fertility rates, nuclear family structures, and the weakening of traditional elderly care models. In this context, promoting the concept of "active aging" and fostering a "senior consciousness" from a lifelong perspective have become key paths to addressing issues such as shortage of elderly care resources, intergenerational conflicts, and the marginalization of the elderly’s social value.

So funktioniert es

The "Pebble" smart home robot, an innovative product for the elderly’s home environment, acts as an "incarnation of children" to integrate into the daily life of empty-nest elderly intelligently. It accurately identifies the elderly’s emotional states and delivers targeted companionship interventions. With anthropomorphic design, it possesses autonomous behaviors: in addition to responding to needs or APP commands, it can actively observe the environment and initiate interactions. As a "companion" in the absence of children, it helps the elderly reduce psychological dependence, improve self-satisfaction, and stay positive. Children can remotely adjust the robot’s behavior via an APP, interact with their parents, and offer guidance, breaking spatial barriers to enhance real interactivity and a genuine sense of companionship.“

Designprozess

Our team integrates literature analysis, interdisciplinary research, and speculative design. Via deep theory-practice integration, it identifies key needs in "elderly consciousness" and "intergenerational support," explores diverse awakening paths, and clarifies China’s strong family values make families core in "turning conflicts into motivation."​ The research embeds speculative design into intergenerational support for elderly consciousness awakening, boosting elders’ self-awakening through better intergenerational understanding and exploring emotional resonance via interaction ritual theory.​ For design strategies, leveraging speculative design’s core, we innovatively propose anthropomorphizing products, envisioning "objects as human metaphors." Drawing on intergenerational support’s functionality and "moral materialization" philosophy, it stresses smart products can’t replace filial piety—they’re helpers/collaborators. Thus, physical props with functionality plus cutting-edge tech yield designs with practical and speculative value.

Warum es anders ist

Our team's 2024 research in core journal Design verified the service system via prototype tests/optimizations.​ Future plans:​ Deepen "technology-ritual" integration: Smarter device integration into family rituals (e.g., wearables capture emotional data for real-time interaction suggestions, avoiding disrupting traditions).​ Build ethical framework: Embed "technological moderation" (e.g., "digital fasting" reminds children to provide offline care, balancing tech and warmth).​ Develop inclusive design: Modular, customizable solutions for diverse cultures/families (e.g., "virtual intergenerational network" for lone elders, with AI simulating multi-role interactions to offset missing family support).​ Promote interdisciplinary verification: Collaborate with psychology/anthropology on longitudinal tracking, using mixed methods (quantitative data + qualitative interviews) to reveal consciousness awakening mechanisms.​

Pläne für die Zukunft

Our team's research was published in 2024 in the Chinese core journal Design. After multiple prototype tests and optimizations, the service system's overall process is verified.​Future plans:​Deepening "technology-ritual" integration: Exploring smarter integration of devices into family rituals (e.g., wearables capturing emotional data to generate real-time personalized interaction suggestions, avoiding disruption to traditional rituals).​Building an ethical framework: Embedding "technological moderation" (e.g., a "digital fasting" function reminding children to engage in offline care, balancing tech convenience and human warmth).​

Auszeichnungen

One publication in a Chinese core journal.