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

Study of the Importance of Adequacy to Robot Verbal and Non Verbal Communication in Human-Robot interaction

The Robadom project aims at creating a homecare robot that help and assist people in their daily life, either in doing task for the human or in managing day organization. A robot could have this kind of role only if it is accepted by humans. Before thinking about the robot appearance, we decided to evaluate the importance of the relation between verbal and nonverbal communication during a human-robot interaction in order to determine the situation where the robot is accepted. We realized two experiments in order to study this acceptance. The first experiment studied the importance of having robot nonverbal behavior in relation of its verbal behavior. The second experiment studied the capability of a robot to provide a correct human-robot interaction.Comment: the 43rd Symposium on Robotics - ISR 2012, Taipei : Taiwan, Province Of China (2012

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

iGrace – Emotional Computational Model for EmI Companion Robot.

Chapitre 4We will discuss in this chapter the research in the field of emotional interaction, to maintain a non-verbal interaction with children from 4 to 8 years. This work fits into the EmotiRob project, whose goal is to comfort the children vulnerable and / or in hospitalization with an emotional robot companion. The use of robots in hospitals is still limited; we decided to put forward simple robot architecture and therefore, the emotional expression. In this context, a robot too complex and too voluminous must be avoided. After a study of advanced research on perception and emotional synthesis, it was important to determine the most appropriate way to express emotions in order to have a recognition rate acceptable to our target. Following an experiment on this subject, we were able to determine the degrees of freedom needed for the robot to express the six primary emotions. The second step was the definition and description of our emotional model. In order to have a wide range of expressions, while respecting the number of degrees of freedom, we use the concepts of emotional experiences. They provide us with almost two hundred different behaviors for the model. However we decide as a first step to limit ourselves to only fifty behaviors. This diversification is possible thanks to a mix of emotions linked to the dynamics of emotions. This theoretical model now established, we have started various experiments on a variety of audiences in order to validate the first time in its relevance and the rate of recognition of emotions. The first experiment was performed using a simulator for the capture of speech and the emotional and behavioral synthesis of the robot. This, validates the model assumptions that will be integrated EMI - Emotional Model of Interaction. Future phases of the project will evaluate the robot, both in its expression than in providing comfort to children. We describe the protocols used and present the results for EMI. These experiments will allow us to adjust and adapt the model. We will finish this chapter with a brief description of the robot's architecture, and the improvements to be made for the second version of EMI

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

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

Emotirob : from understanding to cognitive interaction

International audienceThe ANR project EmotiRob aims at conceiving and carrying out a soft toy robot which can interact emotionally and cognitively with handicapped and fragile children. However the project MAPH (Active Media For the Handicap) which is an extension of EmotiRob extends the cognitive abilities of the robot so as to implement linguistic interaction with the child. This article presents our work for both projects: speech understanding, emotional interaction, cognitive interaction

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

Impact d'un Robot " Majordome " sur l'état psychoaffectif et cognitif de personnes âgées ayant des troubles cognitifs

Les personnes âgées souffrant de troubles cognitifs ont besoin de services, en particulier d'aide sous forme d'entrainement cognitif et de facilitation des contacts sociaux, auxquelles les technologies de l'information et de la communication peuvent répondre. Les équipes (Broca, Valoria, ISIR, Robosoft) du projet TECSAN Robadom (financé par l'ANR) développent et testent auprès de personnes âgées souffrant de troubles cognitifs légers, un robot doté d'émotions et du langage, adapté aux difficultés de ces personnes, contrôlé par elles et qui pourrait contribuer à leur soutien au domicile en apportant différents services tels que des aides matérielles, des relais d'information, un soutien psychologique et cognitif. En début de projet, les scénarii de validations du robot et des spécifications techniques de l'interaction ont été réalisés. La deuxième phase comportait la conception du robot, le développement de la perception multimodale centrée sur l'utilisateur et du modèle émotionnel et cognitif d'interaction. La troisième phase est constituée des évaluations cliniques. Cette tâche permet d'étudier l'acceptabilité, l'utilisabilité et l'impact du robot dans la vie quotidienne (affectif, cognitif, qualité de vie...) et la manière dont le robot est perçu (compagnon, machine, intrus) par les utilisateurs, ainsi que les questions d'éthiques soulevées par le projet à travers une approche transversale prenant en compte aussi bien les dimensions normatives (lois, droits, etc.) que proactives (opinions des usagers)