Voice Familiarity in a Voice-Reminders App for Elderly Care Recipients and Their Family Caregivers

Valdivia, Karen P.; Li, Jamy

Abstract

This work focuses on the effect of voice familiarity in voice reminders between elders and their caregivers. A voice application (for desktops and smartphones) was created to study these effects. Seniors, and their family care providers along with medical providers were consulted for voice application design and improvement opportunities using two user tests with 17 care dyads and 15 medical care providers. Results from qualitative content analysis show that care dyads generally prefer familiar voice reminders for routine tasks (such as taking medication) and generally find caregiver-voiced reminders to be acceptable, while medical care providers have mixed opinions about older adults using recorded reminders.

Citation

Valdivia, K. P., & Li, J. (online). Voice Familiarity in a Voice-Reminders App for Elderly Care Recipients and Their Family Caregivers. IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, https://doi.org/10.1109/thms.2025.3582259

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 17, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Jul 14, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jul 29, 2025
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems
• Electronic ISSN: 2168-2291
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/thms.2025.3582259
• Keywords: Caregiving of elders, voice familiarity, voice response systems