Social touch in human–computer interaction

Touch is our primary non-verbal communication channel for conveying intimate emotions and as such essential for our physical and emotional wellbeing. In our digital age, human social interaction is often mediated. However, even though there is increasing evidence that mediated touch affords affective communication, current communication systems (such as videoconferencing) still do not support communication through the sense of touch. As a result, mediated communication does not provide the intense affective experience of co-located communication. The need for ICT mediated or generated touch as an intuitive way of social communication is even further emphasized by the growing interest in the use of touch-enabled agents and robots for healthcare, teaching, and telepresence applications. Here, we review the important role of social touch in our daily life and the available evidence that affective touch can be mediated reliably between humans and between humans and digital agents. We base our observations on evidence from psychology, computer science, sociology, and neuroscience with focus on the first two. Our review shows that mediated affective touch can modulate physiological responses, increase trust and affection, help to establish bonds between humans and avatars or robots, and initiate pro-social behavior. We argue that ICT mediated or generated social touch can (a) intensify the perceived social presence of remote communication partners and (b) enable computer systems to more effectively convey affective information. However, this research field on the crossroads of ICT and psychology is still embryonic and we identify several topics that can help to mature the field in the following areas: establishing an overarching theoretical framework, employing better research methodologies, developing basic social touch building blocks, and solving specific ICT challenges

Integración y puesta en marcha de un robot social asistencial

Un robot de interacción social, es un robot con capacidad de para desarrollar comportamientos sociales eficaces interactuando con personas en diferentes entornos. Los campos más típicos donde se puede desarrollar el robot social son el ocio, la educación o fines de bienestar social. Este proyecto irá enfocado en este último, desarrollando un robot social asistencial para personas de avanzada edad, prestando labores de terapia y entretenimiento. El trabajo comenzará con la investigación de robots sociales de la misma índole, destacando sus ventajas e inconvenientes, proseguirá con el diseño de una interfaz para realizar la interacción, estando dentro de la normativa actual, y adaptándose al tipo de usuarios que va a tener. Seguido se realizarán unas pruebas para evaluar la capacidad de interacción del robot y por último se incluirá un diálogo básico y automático.Departamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas y AutomáticaGrado en Ingeniería en Electrónica Industrial y Automátic

Puesta en servicio de un robot social y desarrollo de un conjunto de herramientas de ayuda asistencial

El presente Trabajo de Fin de Grado tiene como objetivo principal el desarrollo de herramientas que permitan la comunicación con las personas que residan en una planta de hospital o en un centro de personas de avanzada edad sin la necesidad de la presencia física del personal sanitario o los familiares a través del robot social. Para ello se ha realizado un análisis comparativo de las diferentes posibilidades existentes en el mercado y se han estudiado tanto sus capacidades como si era viable aplicarlas a este tío de proyecto. Una vez analizado se eligió el robot social James para realizar esta aplicación que cumple con los requisitos necesarios y tiene la autorización de la Comunidad Europea para su implantación. Se han examinado las capacidades y funciones que puede realizar este robot así como todas las herramientas que podemos añadir para mejorar sus habilidades para su uso asistencial. Se ha utilizado como principal modo de comunicación del robot la tecnología MQTT. Por tanto, en este documento se ha analizado esta tecnología y sus fundamentos teóricos, así como las funciones que puede desarrollar el robot social James. Para desarrollar una aplicación que sea intuitiva y útil al usuario que maneje el robot se han estudiado dos posibilidades: la primera es una aplicación para móviles Android, y la segunda, una aplicación HTML. La aplicación para el sistema operativo Android tiene la ventaja de ser más visual pero limita la posibilidad de un campo de dispositivos que, aunque es amplio, no es universal. Sin embargo, la aplicación HTML al ser un lenguaje estándar permite que cualquier usuario desde cualquier dispositivo tenga acceso a la aplicación. Por eso este trabajo se ha centrado en desarrollar en lenguaje HTML el interfaz con el usuario. También se ha desarrollado un soporte físico donde poder instalar una tableta, ya que el robot James no permite realizar videollamadas con voz. Para solucionar este problema se ha desarrollado un esqueleto que se puede obtener mediante impresión 3D por deposición de material fundido. Esto ha permitido añadir una función vital para el objetivo del proyecto, que es facilitar la comunicación de personas en un entorno aislado.Departamento de Ingeniería de Sistemas y AutomáticaGrado en Ingeniería en Electrónica Industrial y Automátic

Robots in Service and Nursing Care - An Investigation into Japan’s Robot Use and Development

Postponed access: the file will be accessible after 2020-11-30We are currently seeing a rapid growth in the investment and development of robots to assist or replace human workers and efforts in many aspects of life. Due to Japan’s proportionally large and growing elderly population along with a shrinking workforce, the Japanese government has chosen to promote the research, development, and use of robots in fields such as nursing care. Other countries are also facing the same problems as Japan but have not chosen to promote the alternative futuristic solution to the same extent. In a pursuit to better understand the impact that robots already have and will have on society and everyday life, we have researched the topic of assistive robots in the service and nursing care context. Through a design science framework and mixed methods approach, performing semi-structured interviews with robot developers, professors in robotics and nursing care staff, observations on the use of robots in real-life settings, case studies, and one experiment, we have developed a comprehensive analysis and understanding of the research problem. To analyze the data, content analysis and the grounded theory were used. An experiment and two case studies were used to investigate attitudes, perceived benefits, and disadvantages of using robots. Furthermore, interviews and observations were conducted at nursing care facilities to investigate the possibility of assisting or even substituting humans with robots in settings that usually require a sense of human warmth and care. Previous research often focusses on individual robots or on literature review without field data. It would seem like the literature is lacking a deeper perspective, while at the same time, painting a wider picture of the domain itself. Therefore, this research investigated the development and experiences with robots that already exist and have been tested in real-world settings. The findings of the study summarized the literature on robots in nursing care, attitudes towards robots across countries and Japan’s strategy for further integrating robots into their society. Other results include real experience with the use of robots in nursing facilities and theories grounded in the ideas and thoughts behind the development of robots commonly used today. An experiment exploring empathy towards robots demonstrated the distinctiveness of robots, as compared to dolls, in enhanced empathy towards them. Two case studies captured views from university students and primary school pupils based on interaction with the humanoid robot Pepper. Pupils found Pepper to be useful and likable, while university students found the interaction to be fun, but frustrating at times. Based on the field studies, we could conclude that Japanese robot developers and researches recommend robots to be inferior to users in terms of intelligence and relationship, but also capable of easy interaction and ideally reading between lines in communication. In nursing care, robots are currently taking the role of pets (Paro and Qoobo), a child (Pepper, Paro, PALRO, RoBoHon, and Smibi) and even as a staff member (Pepper), capable of entertaining and accompanying elderly to help with mental well-being. There might be a current lack of ethical and safety standards for such robots. However, safety and ethical issues are considered by developers and professors in terms of privacy, deception, attachment, mechanical safety. Current robots have different levels of cognitive capacities depending on purpose and interaction style. Goals for the future include improvement in aspects such as intelligence, marketing strategies, and educating users on robots’ capabilities and limitations.Masteroppgave i informasjonsvitenskapINFO390MASV-IKTMASV-INF

Utilisation du robot humanoïde NAO comme outil de dépistage des troubles neurocognitifs chez une population âgée

Les troubles neurocognitifs, dont la maladie d’Alzheimer, touchent annuellement un grand nombre de Canadiens. Le dépistage et le diagnostic de ces maladies à un stade précoce sont essentiels afin de mettre en place des interventions qui pourront préserver le plus longuement possible l’autonomie et la qualité de vie des personnes atteintes. Cependant, les troubles neurocognitifs sont bien souvent dépistés à un stade avancé. Les changements démographiques relatifs au vieillissement de la population canadienne auront possiblement pour conséquence une aggravation de ce phénomène. En ce sens, le développement d’aides technologiques utilisant l’intelligence artificielle pourrait représenter une alternative efficace pour soutenir les professionnels de la santé et leur permettre de redistribuer plus efficacement leur temps. La présente étude avait pour objectif de déterminer si le robot humanoïde NAO peut représenter une plateforme efficace pour l’administration de tests de dépistage standardisés des troubles neurocognitifs auprès des personnes âgées de 65 ans et plus. Le robot NAO a été programmé afin d’être en mesure d’administrer de façon autonome deux tests de dépistage des troubles neurocognitifs; le Mini-Mental State Examination et le test de l’horloge. La démarche expérimentale consistait à administrer aux mêmes participants à deux reprises les tests de dépistage, et ce, à sept jours d’intervalle; à une reprise par un examinateur humain, et une autre à l’aide du robot humanoïde NAO. Les résultats obtenus par 36 participants âgés entre 65 et 84 ans ont ainsi été comparés. L’attitude initiale des participants envers les robots et le niveau d’acceptation de ceux-ci face au robot NAO ont également été mesurés à l’aide d’échelles et de questionnaires. Les données montrent qu’il existe une différence significative entre les résultats recueillis par le robot NAO et l’examinateur humain aux mêmes tests de dépistage, des résultats significativement supérieurs étant généralement recueillis par l’examinateur humain. Les résultats montrent cependant une corrélation moyenne-élevée entre les résultats recueillis au MMSE (r = 0,568, p < 0,001), mais pas au test de l’horloge. La différence significative entre les résultats recueillis pourrait être expliquée par la présence d’importants dysfonctionnements technologiques avec le robot NAO ayant pu influencer à la baisse les résultats obtenus par les participants. Les résultats recueillis à l’échelle d’acceptation adaptée du modèle Almere montrent que le robot NAO est généralement bien accepté par ses utilisateurs, avec une moyenne de 92,75 (É.T. = 13,61) points sur une possibilité de 130 points à l’échelle d’acceptation adaptée du modèle Almere, ce qui correspond à une moyenne de 3,57 par item sur une échelle de type Likert en cinq points. La perception d’utilité de la technologie par les participants ainsi que les caractéristiques physiques du robot semblent être deux des facteurs ayant influencé positivement le niveau d’acceptation des participants. Les données ont également révélé qu’il n’existe pas de corrélation significative entre les résultats obtenus aux épreuves de dépistage et le niveau d’acceptation des participants vis-à-vis du robot. De plus, contrairement à ce qui était attendu, il n’existe pas de corrélation significative entre l’attitude initiale des participants envers les robots et leur niveau d’acceptation du robot NAO dans le cadre de leur interaction avec celui-ci, le niveau d’acceptation des participants envers cette technologie ne semblant ainsi pas affecter significativement les résultats obtenus aux épreuves. Somme toute, le robot NAO pourrait effectivement représenter une plateforme efficace pour l’administration d’épreuves de dépistage des troubles neurocognitifs auprès des personnes âgées, mais d’importantes améliorations devront être appliquées à la technologie afin d’éliminer la présence de dysfonctionnements. Une fois les dysfonctionnements résolus, d’autres études seront ainsi nécessaires afin de préciser l’efficacité du robot NAO comme outil de dépistage des troubles neurocognitifs auprès des personnes âgées

Designing for Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness in Robot-Assisted Language Learning

The current number of immigrants has risen quickly in recent years due to globalization. People move to another country for economic, educational, emotional, and other reasons. As a result, immigrants need to learn the host language to integrate into their new living environment. However, the process of learning the host language for adult immigrants faces many challenges. Among those challenges, maintaining intrinsic motivation is critical for a long-term language study process and the well-being of adult immigrants. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a popular theoretical framework that explains human motivation, especially intrinsic motivation, through a psychological approach to understand its nature. According to SDT, humans are intrinsically motivated through the satisfaction of the three basic needs of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness. Many researchers have applied the theory to different topics and directions, including language learning. On the other hand, social robots have been used extensively in the language learning context due to their physical embodiments and the application of artificial intelligence in robotics. Furthermore, research has proven that social robots can create a relaxed and engaging learning environment, thus motivating language learners. The thesis designs and implements a RALL application called SAMQ using QTrobot, a humanoid social robot capable of producing body gestures, displaying different facial expressions, and multilingual communication. The study aims to investigate SAMQ’s ability to evoke intrinsic motivations of adult immigrants in learning the Finnish language. While previous research focuses on English as the second language (L2) and targets children, this thesis’s L2 is Finnish, and the learners are adult immigrants. The thesis conducts semi-structured interviews during the Pre-study phase (N=6) to gather real insights from adult immigrants living in Finland, to understand demotivating factors in their language learning experience and the unsatisfied aspects of the three basic needs. The qualitative findings from the Pre-study contribute to the design and implementation of two versions of SAMQ, aiming at evoking intrinsic motivations through satisfying unmet needs. The first version is a Quiz-only program that tests several assumptions regarding human-robot interaction (HRI). The final version of SAMQ is a more comprehensive language learning application that supports two modes of study: Learning and Quizzes. It consists of multiple modifications that address all adult immigrants’ basic needs while additionally promoting intrinsic motivation through media. The final Evaluation of SAMQ (N=6) includes a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The quantitative results of the questionnaire validated the ability of using social robots to evoke adult learners’ intrinsic motivation in the RALL context. The qualitative findings from the research high-light the importance of social robots’ physical embodiments in eliciting intrinsic motivation for adult learners through satisfying Relatedness. In addition, the use of voice modality creates a genuine HRI for adult learners, fulfilling both Autonomy and Competence, resulting in an engaging and smooth learning experience. Besides that, the use of adult learners’ L1 plays a crucial role in facilitating a relaxed and familiar learning environment, supplying both Competence and Relatedness. Moreover, multimedia learning materials make the learning experience more vivid and attractive. Ultimately, the result shows that accessibility and flexibility are essential attributes for adult learners to maintain their motivation for long-term language study through the satisfaction of Autonomy. Finally, the thesis proposes a design guideline for the RALL context. It consists of five design implications for evoking intrinsic motivation in adult learners through satisfying the three basic psychological needs of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness. The design guideline acts as a proposal for future design and implementation of RALL programs for adults and contributes to developing the human-robot interaction field

A study of the possibilities and effect of assistive robots in the intramural elderly healthcare

This study examined the use of social robots in nursing homes for people with dementia – an uncomfortable topic for many people. Together with professionals, the study examined whether and how the robotic seal Paro can help to improve healthcare. Three applications were developed and implemented in three different nursing homes. Over one hundred residents and over forty healthcare professionals (nursing home doctors, psychologists and nursing assistants) participated in the study. The research found that robots can have a significant added value in the healthcare sector if they are used accurately. They helped to improve the residents' moods (less agitation and aggression and more activation) and made it easier for healthcare providers to carry out their daily tasks, such as washing and dressing residents, administering medication and giving pedicures. As a result of this study, the robotic seal will be implemented in several healthcare institutes

Applying the “human-dog interaction” metaphor in human-robot interaction: a co-design practice engaging healthy retired adults in China

This research adopts a Deweyan pragmatist approach and “research through design” methods to explore the use of human-dog interaction as a model for developing human-robot interaction. This research asks two questions: (1) In what way could the human-dog interaction model inform the design of social robots to meet the needs of older adults? (2) What role could aesthetic, functional and behavioural aspects of the human-dog interaction play in older adults’ interaction with social robots? Driven by the pragmatist approach, this thesis uses the dog-human interaction model as a metaphor in this thesis. The research carried out four studies in two parts. The first part of the practice includes two explorative studies to identify aspects of human-dog interaction that could inform the design of social robots for older adults. Study 1 explores aspects of human-dog interaction that could inform the design of human-robot interaction for retired adults. Study 2 explores a group of healthy retired adults’ attitudes and preferences toward social/assistive robots in China. The findings suggest that, first, the pairing and training process provides a framework for building personalised social robots in terms of form, function, interaction, and stakeholders involved. Second, the cooperative interaction between a human and a guide dog provides insights for building social robots that take on leading roles in interactions. The robot-as-dog metaphor offers a new perspective to rethink the design process of social robots based on the role dog trainer, owner, and the dog plays in human-dog interaction. In the second part of the practice, two more studies are conducted to articulate the usefulness of the designer-as-trainer-metaphor, and the personalisation-astraining-metaphor, using participatory co-designing methods. Engaging both retired adult participants and roboticists as co-designers to investigate further how aesthetic aspects, functional features, and interactive behaviours characterising dog-human interaction could inform how older adults can interact with social robots. Study 3 involved co-designing a robot probe with roboticists and later deploying it in a participant’s home using the Wizard of Oz method. The personalisation-as-training metaphor helps facilitate a critical discussion for the interdisciplinary co-design process. It broadens the design space when addressing the technical limitation of the probe’s camera through reflection-in-action. Study 4 engages the retired adults as co-designers to envision what characteristics they would like robots to have, with attention to the robot’s form, the functions that the robot can perform and how the robot interacts with users. The study applies techniques such as sketching and storyboarding to understand how retired adults make sense of these core elements that are key to developing social/assistive robots for positive ageing. This thesis makes two main contributions to knowledge in human-robot interaction and interaction design research. Firstly, it provides an applied example using the robot-as-dog metaphor as a tool to probe human-robot interactions in a domestic context. Secondly, to show dog-human interaction model is applicable to different levels of abstraction for the co-designing process that involves the roboticists and the end-users. The outcome shows a reflective practice that engages metaphors to facilitate communication across disciplines in the co-design process

Robots sociales y animales en la terapia de personas con demencia avanzada

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Medicina, Departamento de Medicina. Fecha de lectura: 20-04-201