Abstract
The motivation of this paper is to study the potential use of an attention-directed robot, embodied as a pan-tilt tablet display, for telepresence applications with the elderly. With an audio-visual attention control system, the robot automatically directs attention to a speaker by fusion of visual and auditory features. We conducted a user study involving experiential interaction with the robot, which oriented its display in the direction of the user’s voice, and also tracked the user’s face once it is in view of the robot’s camera. A questionnaire was given to gather the opinions of the participants regarding the usability of the robot for the elderly, and their responses indicate a positive attitude, acceptance, and trust towards the attention-directed robot. By comparing the responses of subjects with different levels of video-conferencing experience, we found that subjects who video-conference more frequently tend to be more accepting of the robot. Furthermore, they indicated an acceptable price of the robot as less than the price of a tablet, and most of them expressed the desire to buy the robot in the near future.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Galileo by Motrr. Robotic iPhone Platform, http://www.motrr.com/galileo.html
Broekens, J., Heerink, M., Rosendal, H.: The effectiveness of assistive social robots in elderly care: a review. Gerontechnology Journal 8(2), 94–103 (2009)
Chng, E.: A microphone array with a 3-dimensional configuration for the i2r social robot. In: Technical Report, Institute for Infocomm Research, A*STAR (2012)
Heerink, M., Krose, B.J.A., Wielinga, B.J., Evers, V.: The influence of social presence on acceptance of a companion robot by older people. Journal of Physical Agents, Special Issue on Human Interaction with Domestic Robots 2, 33–40 (2008)
Heerink, M., Krose, B.J.A., Wielinga, B.J., Evers, V.: Measuring the influence of social abilities on acceptance of an interface robot and a screen agent by elderly users. In: Proceedings of HCI 2009, Cambridge (2009)
Hutson, S., Lim, S.L., Bentley, P.J., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Bowling, A.: Investigating the suitability of social robots for the wellbeing of the elderly. In: D’Mello, S., Graesser, A., Schuller, B., Martin, J.-C. (eds.) ACII 2011, Part I. LNCS, vol. 6974, pp. 578–587. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)
Li, L., Xu, Q., Tan, Y.K.: Attention-based addressee selection for service and social robots to interact with multiple persons. In: Workshop at SIGGRAPH Asia 2012, Singapore (2012)
Ng, J., Tan, O., Wong, A., Kiat, K.W.: Older adults’ attitudes toward homes service robots. In: WASA 2012 Proceedings of the Workshop at SIGGRAPH Asia, pp. 87–90 (2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Yan, R., Tee, K.P., Chua, Y., Huang, Z. (2013). A User Study for an Attention-Directed Robot for Telepresence. In: Biswas, J., Kobayashi, H., Wong, L., Abdulrazak, B., Mokhtari, M. (eds) Inclusive Society: Health and Wellbeing in the Community, and Care at Home. ICOST 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7910. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39470-6_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39470-6_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39469-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39470-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)