HapticLever: Kinematic Force Feedback using a 3D Pantograph

HapticLever is a new kinematic approach for VR haptics which uses a 3D pantograph to stiffly render large-scale surfaces using small-scale proxies. The HapticLever approach does not consume power to render forces, but rather puts a mechanical constraint on the end effector using a small-scale proxy surface. The HapticLever approach provides stiff force feedback when the user interacts with a static virtual surface, but allows the user to move their arm freely when moving through free virtual space. We present the problem space, the related work, and the HapticLever design approach.Comment: UIST 2022 Poste

Emotion-mapped Robotic Facial Expressions based on Philosophical Theories of Vagueness

As the field of robotics matures robots will need some method of displaying and modeling emotions. One way of doing this is to use a human-like face on which the robot can make facial expressions corresponding to its emotional state. Yet the connection between a robot s emotional state and its physical facial expression is not an obvious one: while a smile can gradually increase or decrease in size, there is no principled method of using boolean logic to map changes in facial expressions to changes in emotional states. We give a philosophical analysis of the problem and show that it is rooted in the vagueness of robot emotions. We then outline several methods that have been used in the philosophical literature to model vagueness and propose an experiment that uses our humanoid robot head to determine which philosophical theory is best suited to the task

Situated messages for asynchronous human-robot interaction

An ongoing issue in human robot interaction (HRI) is how people and robots communicate with one another. While there is considerable work in real-time human-robot communication, fairly little has been done in asynchronous realm. Our approach, which we call situated messages, lets humans and robots asynchronously exchange information by placing physical tokens – each representing a simple message – in meaningful physical locations of their shared environment. Using knowledge of the robot’s routines, a person can place a message token at a location, where the location is typically relevant to redirecting the robot’s behavior at that location. When the robot passes nearby that location, it detects the message and reacts accordingly. Similarly, robots can themselves place tokens at specific locations for people to read. Thus situated messages leverages embodied interaction, where token placement exploits the everyday practices and routines of both people and robots. We describe our working prototype, introduce application scenarios, explore message categories and usage patterns, and suggest future directions

Build Notifications in Agile Environments

In an agile software development environment, developers write code that should work together to fulfill the wishes of the customer. Continuous integration (CI) ensures that code from different individuals integrates properly. CI compiles the entire codebase, deploys and tests it with each change. CI alerts developers of any problems as errors can be fixed more easily if caught earlier in the process. This paper compares the effectiveness of different types of mechanisms for notifying developers to a successful or unsuccessful build. Two different quantitative and qualitative user studies were performed testing the effectiveness of three types of notification devices one virtual e-mail based mechanism, one using ambient lava lamps, and one robotic device. The results show that most developers preferred an easily visible but unobtrusive ambient device combined with an e-mail describing the problem in more detail.We are currently acquiring citations for the work deposited into this collection. We recognize the distribution rights of this item may have been assigned to another entity, other than the author(s) of the work.If you can provide the citation for this work or you think you own the distribution rights to this work please contact the Institutional Repository Administrator at [email protected]

Interacting with microseismic visualizations

Microseismic visualization systems present complex 3D data of small seismic events within oil reservoirs to allow experts to explore and interact with that data. Yet existing systems suffer several problems: 3D spatial navigation and orientation is difficult, and selecting 3D data is challenging due to the problems of occlusion and lack of depth perception. Our work mitigates these problems by applying both proxemic interactions and a spatial input device to simplify how experts navigate through the visualization, and a painting metaphor to simplify how they select that information.N

Test Bed for Human-Robot Interaction

This paper presents a dynamic experimental test bed for exploring and evaluating human-robot interaction (HRI). Our system is designed around the concept of playing board games involving collaboration between humans and robots in a shared physical environment. Unlike the classic human-versus-machine situation often established in computer-based board games, our test bed takes advantage of the rich interaction opportunities that arise when humans and robots play collaboratively as a team. To facilitate interaction within a shared physical environment, our game is played on a large checkerboard where human and robotic players can be situated and play as game pieces within the game. With meaningful interaction occurring within our confined setup, various aspects of human-robot interaction can be easily explored and evaluated such as interface methods. We also present the results of a user evaluation which shows the sensitivity of our system in assessing robotic behaviours

From the Desktop to the Tabletop: Bringing Virtual Games into the Physical World

Realism has become the watchword for modern games games now boast realistic lighting effects, realistic physics, realistic animation systems and realistic AI. Realism is highly sought, simply because a realistic game is a compelling one; as games become more and more indistinguishable from reality, gamers are more willing to suspend disbelief, and to lose themselves in the game world. When the idea of realistic gaming is taken to the logical extreme, one tends to imagine something akin to holodeck from Star Trek a perfect immersive experience which could reproduce the sight, sound, and touch of any scenario. Why is it that modern games fall short of the perfect immersion provided by the holodeck? Graphics are the most obvious discrepancy. Admittedly, the imagery produced by the holodeck is much better than anything we can reasonably create today. But if modern games were to attain perfect graphical photorealism, would this alone create a holodeck-like experience for the player? Obviously not; a key component of the experience is still missing namely, a sense of physical immersion. Although modern games are more realistic than ever before there exist two constraints which have served to limit the player s sense of immersion since the advent of videogaming itself. First, in conventional gaming action is constrained to a flat display space, usually a video monitor. The game experience is confined to a screen, seldom going beyond and engaging the player in the external, physical world. Second, the player s ability to interact with the game is usually tied to an arbitrary input device such as a mouse, keyboard or game pad. The player is never free to act on the game world directly. Instead, he or she must issue all commands through this intermediary device. It is our belief that mixed reality a field of research which attempts to integrate virtual entities into a user s physical environment can address both of these problems simultaneously. Due largely to advances in hardware and software, implementing mixed reality is now more accessible and affordable than ever before. In this paper we attempt to illustrate the potential that mixed reality has for gaming and through a simple videogame implementation, Save Em, demonstrate how easily this technique can be applied.We are currently acquiring citations for the work deposited into this collection. We recognize the distribution rights of this item may have been assigned to another entity, other than the author(s) of the work.If you can provide the citation for this work or you think you own the distribution rights to this work please contact the Institutional Repository Administrator at [email protected]

Sheep and Wolves Testbed for Interaction and Collaboration between Humans and Robots

This paper presents the first prototype of Sheep and Wolves, a system for testing interaction and collaboration paradigms between humans and robots. The paper contributions are twofold: a mixed reality interface for human-robot interaction, and a practical experimental tool for assessing how different robotic behavioral patterns affect interaction and collaboration with users. Sheep and Wolves places humans, robots and virtual entities in a game environment where they have to collaborate and compete. The system is designed around the classic Sheep and Wolves board game, played on a large physical checkerboard. In the prototype presented here the user is playing a single wolf in a pack of four autonomous robotic wolves trying to hunt a single virtual sheep. The human interacts with the rest of the wolf pack using a mixed reality video stream, a graphical interface and a text chat tool that enables discussion and planning of future moves within the pack. In preliminary testing Sheep and wolves was sensitive to differences in the robots behavioral patterns and suggested that robotic assertiveness (or robotic chutzpah) might enhance the quality and trustfulness of the interaction.We are currently acquiring citations for the work deposited into this collection. We recognize the distribution rights of this item may have been assigned to another entity, other than the author(s) of the work.If you can provide the citation for this work or you think you own the distribution rights to this work please contact the Institutional Repository Administrator at [email protected]