VIRTUAL SURFACE FOR HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION

As cooperation between robots and humans becomes increasingly important for new robotic applications, human-robot interaction (HRI) becomes a significant area of research. This paper presents a novel approach to HRI based on the use of a virtual surface. The presented system consists of a virtual surface and a robot manipulator capable of tactile interaction. Multimedia content of the virtual surface and the option to manually guide the manipulator through space provide an intuitive means of interaction between the robot and the operator. The paper proposes shared workspaces for humans and robots to simplify and improve human-robot collaboration when performing various tasks utilizing a developed interaction model

ARTable

Examining issues that come with the emergence of technology, such as the fear of boredom, of intimacy, and of face-to-face conversation. This thesis studies the possibility of a customizable design technology whose goal is to mitigate those issues. Pixls is a low cost interactive tabletop allowing users to collaboratively create digital drawings on a 64-by-64 LED matrix screen using mobile phone touchscreen, thereby encouraging social interaction amongst them. Adopting the research through practices approach, insights, and solutions gathered from literature review and relevant case studies are used as a theoretical foundation for the conceptualization and building of the aforementioned prototype. Based on three key findings derived from the analysis of user feedback, this study concludes that the technology stack used within Pixls should be generalized into a platform, upon which different features can be implemented to afford various types of social interactions, including, but not limited to face-to-face interaction

Multi-Touch Table for Enhancing Collaboration during Software Design

Encouraging collaborative software design through the use of Multi-touch interfaces has become increasingly important because such surfaces can accommodate more than one user concurrently, which is particularly useful for collaborative software design. This study investigated the differences in collaborative design among groups of students working in PC-based and Multi-touch table conditions to determine the potential of the Multi-touch table to increase the effectiveness of collaboration during software design. The literature includes several interesting studies reflecting the role of Multi-touch tables in enhancing collaborative activities. Research has found that Multi-touch tables increase group interaction and therefore increase the attainment of group goals. Although many research efforts have facilitated collaboration among users in software design using Unified Modelling Language (UML), these studies examined distributed collaboration and not face-to-face collaboration. However, existing research that studied facilitating co-located collaborative software design has some limitations such as using technologies that prevent parallel design activities. Collaborative software design using Multi-touch table has not been widely explored. A structured literature review revealed that no Multi-touch collaborative UML design tool is available. Thus, a Multi-touch enabled tool called MT-CollabUML was developed for this study to encourage students to work collaboratively on software design using UML in a co-located setting. Eighteen master’s level students enrolled in the Software Engineering for the Internet module were selected to participate in the study. The participants formed nine pairs. The experiment followed a counterbalanced within-subjects design where groups switched experiment conditions to ensure each group used the Multi-touch table and PC-based conditions. All collaborative UML diagramming activities were video recorded for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Results show that using the MT-CollabUML tool in the Multi-touch table condition enhanced the level of collaboration among the team members and increased their shared contribution. It also increased the equity of participation; the individuals contributed almost equally to the task, and single-person domination decreased in the Multi-touch condition. Results also show that the Multi-touch table encourages parallel-participative design where both group members work in a parallel manner to accomplish the final agreed-upon design. The analysis of verbal communication shows that both experiment conditions encouraged subjects to use collaborative learning skills