Jim ‘brings to life’ aged care students’ experiences
A realistic computer avatar of an elderly farmer with dementia is helping students entering the aged healthcare system to interact with a range of responses from people they will likely come across in their clinical placements.
Jim, the new avatar software technology, is proving to be a valuable training tool for students entering the aged healthcare system.
Spearheading the project is Dr Janet Beilby, speech pathologist, scientist and Western Australia’s Curtin University lecturer, who says the avatar, named Jim, is valuable for preclinical training.
The avatar software technology runs from a laptop whose screen is transferred to a large screen television with cameras facing the student. A table and chair are set in front of the television and the student to make it appear as if the student is sitting down in a clinical office with Jim.
The trainer, who controls Jim’s responses, is in an adjacent, one way observation room, watching and listening to the student’s responses.
According to researchers, by allowing the student to sit in the room alone with Jim, it enhances the feeling of a “genuine” clinical session between them and the elderly gentleman.
'Jim the Avatar' has been positively tested with 69 students.
While Dr Beilby admits that ‘Jim’ could be even more realistic, researchers have intentionally left him slightly artificial.
“When virtual people are too realistic, the public can get quite uncomfortable. You want a character who is not perfect, but realistic enough – and that’s the juggling act. You think of your elderly neighbour or grandfather, which is a different history for everyone, and then you have room to bring your own life experiences into the interaction with the simulated elderly person,” she says.
However, the team spent days filming an Australian gentleman in order to perfect the ‘Australian accent’ and mannerisms.
Much time and effort was also spent developing the wrinkles on Jim’s face, his random movements and breathing.
Student, Bianca Wytch, says the experience with Jim has been beneficial to her learning as his responses aren’t as “expected and planned” as it would be during a person to person, face to face communication.
According to Dr Beilby, Jim’s future will include voice recognition software to allow him to respond automatically to the students without supervisor guidance.
There are also plans to have Jim in a hospital setting to help students learn how to handle difficult bedside assessments, as well as create 'disorder specific' avatars to further students’ training.
