We are pleased to share our lab's latest research paper, From Automation to Cognition: A Contextual Design Approach for Enhancing Elderly Patron Services with Proactive and Memory-aware Robots, recently published in The Electronic Library as part of the Special Issue: "Application of Artificial Intelligence in Information Services."

This paper presents our series of studies on the deployment of social robots in public libraries conducted last year. Moving beyond mere automation, we adopted a contextual and user-centered design approach to integrate AI into real-world library workflows.

Our field study, conducted at the Living Lab at NTL, introduces "OREO"—a cognitive robot designed specifically for elderly patrons. We focused on transforming the robot from a reactive tool into a socially aware agent with three core innovations: 

• Proactive Engagement: Autonomously identifying and warmly greeting patrons to reduce technology anxiety.
• Memory-Aware Dialogue: OREO remembers past interactions! Our findings showed that this ability to recall previous conversations significantly enhanced the sense of intimacy and connection for elderly users.
• Intelligent Navigation: Using vision-language integration to guide patrons to books and resources effectively.

The results confirm that when robots are designed with cognitive capabilities like memory and proactivity, they can successfully preserve the library's tranquil atmosphere while providing personalized, high-tech service.

A heartfelt thank you to the National Taiwan Library for their partnership in this Living Lab initiative, and to all the community participants who made this research possible. Stay tuned for more results from our ongoing research series!

Read the Full paper here:  Yueh H, Lin W, Chen C, Chang F, Fu L (2025), "From automation to cognition: a contextual design approach for enhancing elderly patron services with proactive and memory-aware library robots". The Electronic Library, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-06-2025-0244

研究室最新的研究成果上線啦！出版在《The Electronic Library》Application of Artificial Intelligence in Information Services 特刊中的這篇研究論文，是我們過去一年來努力將社會機器人導入公共圖書館服務的系列研究成果之一 。在這項研究中，我們跳脫了單純的技術展現，而是從任務情境 (Workflow) 與使用者中心 (User-centered) 的角度出發，在公共圖書館真實場域中，部署設計認知機器人。這項研究的核心突破在於將機器人從「自動化工具」升級為具備「認知能力」的代理人，研究結果顯示長輩們不僅接受度高，更認為這種具備記憶與主動性的機器人，能有效緩解科技焦慮並帶來親切感 。這篇文章同時也是我們在NTU-NTL Living Lab 執行的第一項正式研究成果，特別感謝國立臺灣圖書館的大力支持，以及所有參與研究的社區長輩與圖書館同仁 。這只是開始，敬請期待我們後續更多關於人機互動與智慧圖書館的系列發表！