Abstract

Super-aged societies experience a large increase in the proportion of elderly with limited mobility who face significant challenges accessing transportation. Telecommunication services, namely video calling, has structural limitations in meeting the mobility needs of an aging population. In order to address the limited mobility of the elderly, this study suggests an alternative telecom model to utilize the opposite party as an avatar: a remote-controlled videocall transporter who under the user’s control moves to the user’s desire location. This alternative telecom model is defined as real avatar service. To highlight the utility of real avatar service, this study first explores the structural limitations of enhancing passenger transport and telecommunications to address the challenge of limited mobility faced by a growing elderly population. Then, inspired by theories of media determinism, it designs an alternative telecom model to shape the avatar-in-reality. Finally through a literature review, it demonstrates how shaping the elderly’s avatar-in-reality is a useful alternative, functionally distinguished from existing telecom services and transportation, for enhancing the mobility of the elderly.