Use of a Socially Assistive Robot as a Online Shopping Digital Skills Assistan

Tele-medicine has recently gained popularity in healthcare [9]. Digital sessions reduce preparation and travel time for patients and has been found to improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital visits [3]. Other digital solutions now allow treatments to occur in the patients home. Remote physio therapy has been tested where patients meet with a physio therapist, via tele-conference, to view live demonstratations ofcorrect exercise techniques, and then access a database of exercises with reference images and videos to follow while performing rehabilitation exercises without remote human supervision [11]. The digital skills divide among older adults can limit their access to health services, as well as other services that rely on digital technology [5]. This has the potential to exclude them from the ever-increasing number of services and advancements such as those mentioned above. Digital technology has been found to be empowering for elderly users when they are designed with the elderly in mind [2], specifically by facilitating daily activities [6]. Many physical challenging life factors, such as reduced mobility and social contact, can be addressed through the use of digital technology, motivating many programs aimed at increasing digital literacy in the elderly population such as [8]. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page.