Field trial of asynchronous communication using network-based interactive child watch system for the participation of parents in day-care activities

A recent trend in society is for young parents to ask for support in performing their childcare duties. Against this background and to promote the intermixing of parents and children and support information exchange between parents and nursery teachers, we developed the network-based interactive child-watch system called "Meru-robo digital log system". It is composed of the "action switch platform (AcSP)" (developed by NTT Laboratories) for exchanging dialog with a "personal robot" (called "PaPeRo") (developed by NEC Corporation) by using cellular phone text messaging. A field trial showed that parents could send their intentions and receive information in a schedule-flexible manner via cellular phone text messaging. Since the robot in the nursery linked the parents to the teacher, their information exchanges did not interfere with the activities of the children. We report results of information exchanges using this system in two situations: parents are the same building (but not the same room as the children) and parents are in other locations going about their daily life. In the limited situation of children playing in a nursery, we found that parents in remote locations could get detailed information about their children\´s activities and expressions when desired via asynchronous communication.