Immersive Technology and the Elderly: A Mini-Review

Brett E. Shelton, Cigdem Uz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Technologies that provide immersive experiences continue to become more ubiquitous across all age groups. This paper presents a review of the literature to provide a snapshot of the current state of research involving the use of immersive technologies and the elderly. A narrative literature review was conducted using the ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, Springerlink and ERIC databases to summarize primary studies from which conclusions were drawn into a holistic interpretation. The majority of the studies examined the effect of immersive technologies on elder peoples' age-related declines, including sensory and motor changes (vision, hearing, motor skills), cognitive changes and social changes. Various immersive technologies have been described and tested to address these age-related changes, and have been categorized as ‘games and simulations', ‘robotics' and ‘social technologies'. In most cases, promising results were found for immersive technologies to challenge age-related declines, especially through the increase of morale.

Original languageAmerican English
JournalGerontology
StatePublished - 1 Feb 2015

Keywords

  • games
  • immersion
  • robotics
  • social networks
  • technology

EGS Disciplines

  • Instructional Media Design

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