Chatbot companion for elderly

Abstract

The rapid growth of the aging population has underscored the need for innovative solutions to address challenges related to social isolation, mental health, and accessibility among the elderly. There are around 23% of elderly aged 60 and above reporting to experience loneliness in Singapore. Therefore, this project aims to explore the design and development of a chatbot companion for elderly users, focusing on fostering companionship, promoting mental well-being, and providing practical assistance. The chatbot integrates natural language processing (NLP) and advanced machine learning techniques to deliver intuitive and empathetic interactions as well as initiating conversations with the elderly. Key features include daily reminders for medication and appointments, conversational engagement on various topics, lottery result reporting, weather forecast, latest news and so on. By utilising DeepSpeech, a speech-to-text engine and 01.AI’s Yi-1.5 Chat LLM, a chatbot that is capable of providing companionship to the elderly will be developed.