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Pepper facilitates the transformation of nutrition education

Childhood obesity is increasingly becoming a serious global issue. Over 35 million children under the age of five and approximately 340 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 are overweight or obese. Obesity not only predisposes individuals to a range of health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and musculoskeletal disorders but is also closely linked to psychological health issues like anxiety and low self-esteem.

Scientific and moderate nutrition education is one of the important ways to prevent childhood obesity. It aims to cultivate healthy eating habits in children by teaching them about nutrition, thereby promoting their healthy growth.

How can nutrition education be made more effective and engaging? According to an article recently published in the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), a research team explored the potential of the Pepper robot as a storyteller in nutrition education scenarios. Through comparative experiments and analysis with human teachers as storytellers, the study found that Pepper robots performed better. This demonstrates that using Pepper as an educational instructor in the field of nutrition education is feasible and effective.


图片测试.pngThe researchers ingeniously utilized Pepper to develop an interactive storytelling application, vividly presenting knowledge of the nutrition pyramid and stories about the Mediterranean diet. The tablet on Pepper's chest effectively synchronizes the robot's language with images, adding a vivid touch to the storytelling application.

In the experiment, Pepper first explained the purpose of the interactive experience to the users, then displayed the main screen of the application on a tablet, where users could choose to view the nutrition pyramid showing the main nutrients or related stories. After the storytelling session, Pepper would ask each child questions about the nutritional concepts and elements mentioned in the story.

Users could also respond by voice input or by selecting an answer on the tablet. If the answer was correct, Pepper would reinforce the concept through prompts. If the answer was incorrect, Pepper would provide the correct answer and explain the reason for the mistake.

To investigate the effectiveness of the nutrition education provided by Pepper, the study conducted a comparative experiment with a human teacher as the storyteller, allowing for a comparative analysis of the results from both methods.

The study designed a questionnaire for the test subjects, collecting various metrics to assess user engagement, enjoyment, and experience, as well as the test subjects' trust in education and knowledge acquisition.

The results showed that children had a positive experience with both types of nutrition education. However, the Pepper group's test results demonstrated better performance in indicators related to engagement and enjoyment. In terms of trust and knowledge acquisition, the Pepper group's performance was on par with that of the human instructor group.

Undoubtedly, Pepper is fully capable of serving as an instructor in nutrition education. By leveraging the novelty brought by robots, children will experience more engagement and fun in their education, thereby adding a touch of brilliance to the effectiveness of nutrition education.

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