Assessing Children’s First Impressions of “WallBo” - A Robotic Handwashing Buddy

Abstract

In this paper we present our preliminary results from the first trial conducted with "WallBo" a robotic buddy to improve handwashing for children in schools. The one-week trial was carried out in a Scottish school with 16 pupils, aged 6-7 in an ecologically valid setting.The 1:1 interaction with WallBo resulted in 86.25% handwashing compliance, a 33.25% improvement from the baseline handwashing technique pre-WallBo training, and an overall, ≈35% improvement on knowledge about hand hygiene. We also report some insights about perceptions about WallBo in this paper.CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in interaction design; User interface design.

WashWall: An Interactive Smart Mirror for Motivating Handwashing Among Primary School Children

“…Raising awareness and knowledge about handwashing through education and training in schools is the most widely used method for motivating and practising handwashing behaviour among school children [18]. This is usually done using posters, leaflets, games, and videos [9,10,13], see also: [5]. While such approaches have shown effective in raising awareness and in improving handwashing practice, they are less effective in persuading and motivating children; they are difficult to implement in school settings especially with primary school children; and often require supervision by adults (teachers or teaching assistants) [38].…”

“…While such approaches have shown effective in raising awareness and in improving handwashing practice, they are less effective in persuading and motivating children; they are difficult to implement in school settings especially with primary school children; and often require supervision by adults (teachers or teaching assistants) [38]. The HCIcommunity has taken a rising interest in exploring more technical, interactive and persuasive solutions to promote hand hygiene (among children) -each taking their own unique approach, for example: [4,6,13,30,32]. Mondol and colleagues, for instance, employ smartwatches to monitor and inform users about proper handwashing technique [32], whereas Deshmukh and colleagues explored the use of (low-cost) social robots to promote hand hygiene among elementary school children [12,13,46].…”

“…The HCIcommunity has taken a rising interest in exploring more technical, interactive and persuasive solutions to promote hand hygiene (among children) -each taking their own unique approach, for example: [4,6,13,30,32]. Mondol and colleagues, for instance, employ smartwatches to monitor and inform users about proper handwashing technique [32], whereas Deshmukh and colleagues explored the use of (low-cost) social robots to promote hand hygiene among elementary school children [12,13,46]. We will discuss the most relevant HCI-powered handwashing innovations below.…”

“…Recently, there is a rising interest for exploring more interactive and persuasive solutions that can motivate children to wash their hands. Three systems are of particular interest to the current case: WallBo [12,13,46]; smart mirror [38]; and Germ Destroyer [1]. We will briefly introduce each of these systems and discuss the pros and cons of each for aiding handwashing procedures in elementary school children.…”

“…COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic influenza) [9]. Not only COVID-19 but also the impact of other potential future viruses as well as common infections such as gastrointestinal illnesses and respiratory illnesses which are common in tropical countries can be mitigated by practising proper handwashing and making it a habit among school children [13]. Although, children are less affected by COVID-19 infections compared to other age groups, they are one of the main contributors to spearheading the virus to other vulnerable groups.…”