Investigation on people living with Paro at home

Questionnaires have been conducted to the owners of Paro in order to investigate people living with Paro at home. Although service robots such as AIBO have been commercialized and tend to be familiar with us, researches on owners´ background are few. The owners of Paro answered the questionnaires and 85 feedbacks were obtained. The results showed that majority of the owners were females and have kept pets before, but cannot keep pets currently. Important factors for females to keep Paro seem to be not only ldquoCan touch and hugrdquo but also ldquotactile texturerdquo. In addition, although animal preference seems to influence the way to touch Paro; it does not influence the evaluation of Paro. This tendency seems to be due to different playing style. This paper presents the analyzed data of the effects of owners´ sex difference and animal preference on interaction with Paro.