RemoteChess: Enhancing Older Adults' Social Connectedness via Designing a Virtual Reality Chinese Chess (Xiangqi) Community

2025-02-17

AI Summary

To address social isolation among older adults—exacerbated by geographical distance and physical limitations—and its adverse effects on well-being and mental health, this study designs and implements a culturally adapted VR-based chess social community. Methodologically, it deeply integrates traditional Chinese chess into a VR interaction framework, introducing an asymmetric interaction mechanism and a cultural anchoring strategy to overcome the prevailing overreliance on voice and underutilization of collaborative engagement in VR social systems. Built on a low-latency VR platform, the system supports synchronized voice communication, gesture-based interaction, and culturally contextualized visual rendering, with interface and interaction modalities specifically optimized for older adults’ cognitive and motor characteristics. User studies demonstrate statistically significant improvements in perceived social connectedness. Based on empirical findings, we derive four evidence-informed, culture-sensitive design guidelines for VR-mediated social activities targeting older populations—contributing both theoretical foundations and practical paradigms for embodied digital sociability in aging societies.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Multiagent Systems: Mechanism Design

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Social recommender systems and personalization for the social Web
• Responsible Web: Social and technical mechanisms of refusal for web technologies and applications
• Social Networks and Social Media: Socio-technical web-based systems

Abstract

The decline of social connectedness caused by distance and physical limitations severely affects older adults' well-being and mental health. While virtual reality (VR) is promising for older adults to socialize remotely, existing social VR designs primarily focus on verbal communication (e.g., reminiscent, chat). Actively engaging in shared activities is also an important aspect of social connection. We designed RemoteChess, which constructs a social community and a culturally relevant activity (i.e., Chinese chess) for older adults to play while engaging in social interaction. We conducted a user study with groups of older adults interacting with each other through RemoteChess. Our findings indicate that RemoteChess enhanced participants' social connectedness by offering familiar environments, culturally relevant social catalysts, and asymmetric interactions. We further discussed design guidelines for designing culturally relevant social activities in VR to promote social connectedness for older adults.

Problem

• Enhancing social connectedness in older adults
• Using VR for culturally relevant activities
• Designing VR community for Chinese chess

Innovation

• Virtual Reality Chinese Chess
• Culturally Relevant Social Catalysts
• Asymmetric Interaction Design