为老年人提供情感支持的虚拟代理研究现状

目的 老龄化社会需要为老年人提供多种支持，以满足他们的不同需求，而老年人的情感需求往往被忽视。缺乏情感支持的信息产品会使老年用户难以应对使用中的挫折，从而阻碍其融入信息时代。虚拟代理作为一种承载情感化信息的交互工具，在为用户提供情感支持和帮助方面具有一定的潜力。方法 本研究采用系统性文献综述法，筛选并分析了国内外79篇关于虚拟代理和老年人的理论及案例研究。从虚拟代理的定义和特征、为老年人提供情感支持的类型、有利于提高情感支持效果的设计元素，以及未来发展趋势四方面总结了虚拟代理的研究现状。结论 虚拟代理的视觉形象、语音交互和自适应特征有助于为老年人提供社交陪伴，增强他们对技术的信任和接受度。基于此，本文总结了提高虚拟代理情感表达能力的言语和非言语设计因素，同时考虑了相关的隐私伦理问题。最后提出了为老年人提供情感支持的虚拟代理研究的两个重要趋势，包括虚拟代理用于弥合老年人在信息产品和服务中的数字鸿沟，减少他们使用过程中的挫折;虚拟代理的应用环境将逐渐向移动设备和虚拟场景中转变。相关的研究结论从情感支持的角度为适老化虚拟代理的设计研究提供了理论参考。

Research Status of Virtual Agents Providing Emotional Support for Older People

The aging society needs to provide diverse support for older people to meet their different needs, among which the emotional needs are often overlooked. Digital products lacking emotional support present challenges for older users, thereby impeding their integration into the information age. Virtual agents, serving as carriers of information, have the potential to provide the emotional support and assistance to users. In this work, a systematic review method was employed. 79 theoretical and case studies on virtual agents and older people were selected. A comprehensive summary of the current research on virtual agents were conducted from four aspects:the definition and characteristics of virtual agents, types of emotional support provided by virtual agents, design elements facilitating improved effectiveness of emotional support, and future development trends. Virtual agents possess expressive visual imagery, voice interaction capabilities, and adaptive features that contribute to providing social companionship for older people, thereby enhancing their trust and acceptance of technology. Furthermore, verbal and nonverbal design factors that can improve the emotional expression ability of virtual agents were highlighted, while considering relevant privacy ethical issues. Finally, the future development trends of adaptive aging virtual agents, including bridging the digital divide in information products and services, reducing frustrations for older people with virtual agents, and a gradual shift of application environment towards mobile devices and virtual environments are proposed. The research conclusions provide a theoretical reference for the design and research of adaptive aging virtual agents from the perspective of emotional support.