research-article

Design and Evaluation of a Peripheral Robotic Conversation Companion

Authors:

Oren Zuckerman,

Gilad Hirschberger,

Tal Shani ShermanAuthors Info & Claims

HRI '15: Proceedings of the Tenth Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

Pages 3 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/2696454.2696495

Published: 02 March 2015 Publication History

Abstract

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a peripheral empathy-evoking robotic conversation companion, Kip1. The robot's function is to increase people's awareness to the effect of their behavior towards others, potentially leading to behavior change. Specifically, Kip1 is designed to promote non-aggressive conversation between people. It monitors the conversation's nonverbal aspects and maintains an emotional model of its reaction to the conversation. If the conversation seems calm, Kip1 responds by a gesture designed to communicate curious interest. If the conversation seems aggressive, Kip1 responds by a gesture designed to communicate fear. We describe the design process of Kip1, guided by the principles of peripheral and evocative. We detail its hardware and software systems, and a study evaluating the effects of the robot's autonomous behavior on couples' conversations. We find support for our design goals. A conversation companion reacting to the conversation led to more gaze attention, but not more verbal distraction, compared to a robot that moves but does not react to the conversation. This suggests that robotic devices could be designed as companions to human-human interaction without compromising the natural communication flow between people. Participants also rated the reacting robot as having significantly more social human character traits and as being significantly more similar to them. This points to the robot's potential to elicit people's empathy.

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Cited By

Lv DSun RZhu QZuo JQin S(2024)Sustainable Impact of Stance Attribution Design Cues for Robots on Human–Robot Relationships—Evidence from the ERSPSustainability10.3390/su1617725216:17(7252)Online publication date: 23-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177252
Genç UVerma H(2024)Situating Empathy in HCI/CSCW: A Scoping ReviewProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36870528:CSCW2(1-37)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3687052
Pham TWeisswange THassenzahl M(2024)Embodied Mediation in Group Ideation – A Gestural Robot Can Facilitate Consensus-BuildingProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660696(2611-2632)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3660696
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Index Terms

Design and Evaluation of a Peripheral Robotic Conversation Companion
1. Applied computing
  1. Law, social and behavioral sciences
    1. Psychology
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image ACM Conferences

HRI '15: Proceedings of the Tenth Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

March 2015

368 pages

ISBN:9781450328838

DOI:10.1145/2696454

General Chairs:
Julie A. Adams
Vanderbilt University, USA
,
William Smart
Oregon State University, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Bilge Mutlu
University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
,
Leila Takayama
Google[x], USA

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

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SIGAI: ACM Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence
RA: IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 02 March 2015

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HRI '15: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction

March 2 - 5, 2015

Oregon, Portland, USA

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HRI '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 43 of 169 submissions, 25%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 268 of 1,124 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177252
Genç UVerma H(2024)Situating Empathy in HCI/CSCW: A Scoping ReviewProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36870528:CSCW2(1-37)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3687052
Pham TWeisswange THassenzahl M(2024)Embodied Mediation in Group Ideation – A Gestural Robot Can Facilitate Consensus-BuildingProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660696(2611-2632)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3660696
Gillet SVázquez MAndrist SLeite ISebo S(2024)Interaction-Shaping Robotics: Robots That Influence Interactions between Other AgentsACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/364380313:1(1-23)Online publication date: 2-Feb-2024
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