The Pet Plant: Developing an Inanimate Emotionally Interactive Tool for the Elderly.

The development of an interactive "pet" house plant could provide the same positive health support functions as a robotic pet, and with fewer problems, if it could be shown that an emotional attachment with a human was possible. This required that an inanimate living artifact (the plant) along with its pot, be accepted as stimulating emergent emotion. An experiment comparing an interactive, apparently aware, plant with a control was conducted in three retirement homes. Individuals were found to attribute emotions to the interactive plant that increased if the plant was described as having a character similar to that of the user. Results of the study support the conclusion that interactive plants have potential for further development as supportive companions to the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]