Motions of Robots Matter! The Social Effects of Idle and Meaningful Motions

Humans always move, even when “doing” nothing, but robots typically remain immobile. According to the threshold model of social influence [3] people respond socially on the basis of social verification. If applied to human-robot interaction this model would predict that people increase their social responses depending on the social verification of the robot. On other hand, the media equation hypothesis [11] holds that people will automatically respond socially when interacting with artificial agents. In our study a simple joint task was used to expose our participants to different levels of social verification. Low social verification was portrayed using idle motions and high social verification was portrayed using meaningful motions. Our results indicate that social responses increase with the level of social verification in line with the threshold model of social influence

A realistic, multimodal virtual agent for the healthcare domain

We introduce an interactive embodied conversational agent for deployment in the healthcare sector. The agent is operated by a software architecture that integrates speech recognition, dialog management, and speech synthesis, and is embodied by a virtual human face developed using photogrammetry techniques. These features together allow for real-time, face-to-face interactions with human users. Although the developed software architecture is domain-independent and highly customizable, the virtual agent will initially be applied to healtcare domain. Here we give an overview of the different components of the architecture

Design and Evaluation of a Socially Assistive Robot Schoolwork Companion for College Students with ADHD

College students with ADHD respond positively to simple socially assistive robots (SARs) that monitor attention and provide non-verbal feedback, but studies have been done only in brief in-lab sessions. We present an initial design and evaluation of an in-dorm SAR study companion for college students with ADHD. This work represents the introductory stages of an ongoing user-centered, participatory design process. In a three-week within-subjects user study, university students (N=11) with self-reported symptoms of adult ADHD had a SAR study companion in their dorm room for two weeks and a computer-based system for one week. Toward developing SARs for long-term, in-dorm use, we focus on 1) evaluating the usability and desire for SAR study companions by college students with ADHD and 2) collecting participant feedback about the SAR design and functionality. Participants responded positively to the robot; after one week of regular use, 91% (10 of 11) chose to continue using the robot voluntarily in the second week

Motions of robots matter!:The Social effects of idle and meaningful motions

Humans always move, even when “doing” nothing, but robots typically remain immobile. According to the threshold model of social influence [3] people respond socially on the basis of social verification. If applied to human-robot interaction this model would predict that people increase their social responses depending on the social verification of the robot. On other hand, the media equation hypothesis [11] holds that people will automatically respond socially when interacting with artificial agents. In our study a simple joint task was used to expose our participants to different levels of social verification. Low social verification was portrayed using idle motions and high social verification was portrayed using meaningful motions. Our results indicate that social responses increase with the level of social verification in line with the threshold model of social influence

Motions of robots matter!: The Social effects of idle and meaningful motions

Humans always move, even when “doing” nothing, but robots typically remain immobile. According to the threshold model of social influence [3] people respond socially on the basis of social verification. If applied to human-robot interaction this model would predict that people increase their social responses depending on the social verification of the robot. On other hand, the media equation hypothesis [11] holds that people will automatically respond socially when interacting with artificial agents. In our study a simple joint task was used to expose our participants to different levels of social verification. Low social verification was portrayed using idle motions and high social verification was portrayed using meaningful motions. Our results indicate that social responses increase with the level of social verification in line with the threshold model of social influence