Creating Interaction Scenarios With a New Graphical User Interface

The field of human-centered computing has known a major progress these past few years. It is admitted that this field is multidisciplinary and that the human is the core of the system. It shows two matters of concern: multidisciplinary and human. The first one reveals that each discipline plays an important role in the global research and that the collaboration between everyone is needed. The second one explains that a growing number of researches aims at making the human commitment degree increase by giving him/her a decisive role in the human-machine interaction. This paper focuses on these both concerns and presents MICE (Machines Interaction Control in their Environment) which is a system where the human is the one who makes the decisions to manage the interaction with the machines. In an ambient context, the human can decide of objects actions by creating interaction scenarios with a new visual programming language: scenL.Comment: 5th International Workshop on Intelligent Interfaces for Human-Computer Interaction, Palerme : Italy (2012

Effect of agent embodiment on the elder user enjoyment of a game

International audienceThis paper presents a study that compared the elder user enjoyment of a game of trivia in three conditions: participants playing the game with a laptop PC vs. a robot vs. a virtual agent. Statistical analysis did not show any significant difference of the three devices on user enjoyment while qualitative analysis revealed a preference for the laptop PC condition, followed by the robot and the virtual agent. The elderly participants were concentrated on the task performance rather on the interaction with systems. They preferred laptop PC condition mainly because there were less interfaces distracting them from performing the task proposed by the game. Further, the robot was preferred to a virtual agent because of its physical presence. Some issues of the experiment design are raised and directions for future research are suggested to gain more insight into the effects of agent embodiment on human-agent interaction

Are robots our future coaches?

International audienceThe robots are coming in our daily lives: companion robots, service robots, sociable robots, assistant robots, and so on. It is difficult to imagine their real roles in the future because humans' expectations seem unclear, probably because robots are new and little known. It is thus important to put human beings in relation with robots to understand what they want. This paper describes an experimentation which explored the added value of a robot in a memory game with 67 persons comparing three conditions: computer game, robot game, or computer and robot game. Results showed that robot increased their performance perception and seemed to give them assurance. Results showed that the robot could be a natural coach for people

StimCards: interactive and configurable Question and Answer game - Users study conclusion

International audienceThis paper highlights conclusions about six experiments conducted with StimCards, an interactive and configurable Question and Answer game. It has been created in the context of the Robadom project whose goal is to propose a homecare robot for seniors. In this project, StimCards is applied to cognitive stimulation. This game is special because users can create their own questions and their own game scripts, and decide which digital devices will be used to interact with. Two experiments have been realized to evaluate the possibility for users to create game scripts. Two other experiments compared children and seniors. They evaluated StimCards acceptability and the preferred users' computing interlocutor. Results showed that it is so easy to create game scripts that children can do it. Both children and seniors liked StimCards, and children preferred to interact with a robot, rather than a computer or a virtual character

Une interaction la plus riche possible et à moindre coût

International audienceLes jeux de stimulation cognitive ont une importance capitale pour ralentir le déclin des personnes atteintes de troubles cognitifs. Une partie de ces jeux appartient au domaine des GUI et montre des limites notamment depuis l'émergence des NUI (passivité de l'utilisateur, interaction moins riche...). Il existe également des jeux dans le domaine des NUI, mais souvent ils utilisent de la technologie onéreuse ou sont spécialisés pour un problème précis. Souvent, il n'est pas possible de modifier les exercices proposés. Cet article propose une solution pour développer des jeux de stimulation dans le domaine des NUI, à bas prix. Le principe est d'utiliser les dispositifs numériques qui sont présents pour faire un jeu attractif et réutilisable dans d'autres domaines. Cet article présente StimCards, un jeu de cartes interactif. Les utilisateurs peuvent créer leur propre carte et posséder une base de questions illimitée. Ce jeu s'adapte donc à tous les domaines, à toutes les applications. Une expérimentation a montré que StimCards est stimulant et accepté par les utilisateurs