Substituting Restorative Benefits of Being Outdoors through Interactive Augmented Spatial Soundscapes
This addresses limited access to outdoor sensory experiences for depressed older adults in care settings, but it is incremental as it builds on existing theories like ART.
The study tackles geriatric depression by exploring how interactive augmented spatial soundscapes can substitute for outdoor restorative benefits indoors, aiming to design a minimally intrusive system for assisted living facilities.
Geriatric depression is a common mental health condition affecting majority of older adults in the US. As per Attention Restoration Theory (ART), participation in outdoor activities is known to reduce depression and provide restorative benefits. However, many older adults, who suffer from depression, especially those who receive care in organizational settings, have less access to sensory experiences of the outdoor natural environment. This is often due to their physical or cognitive limitations and from lack of organizational resources to support outdoor activities. To address this, we plan to study how technology can bring the restorative benefits of outdoors to the indoor environments through augmented spatial natural soundscapes. Thus, we propose an interview and observation-based study at an assisted living facility to evaluate how augmented soundscapes substitute for outdoor restorative, social, and experiential benefits. We aim to integrate these findings into a minimally intrusive and intuitive design of an interactive augmented soundscape, for indoor organizational care settings.