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Mixed Reality provides a powerful medium for transparent and effective human-robot communication, especially for robots with significant physical limitations (e.g., those without arms). To enhance nonverbal capabilities for armless robots, this article presents two studies that explore two different categories of mixed reality deictic gestures for armless robots: a virtual arrow positioned over a target referent (a non-ego-sensitive allocentric gesture) and a virtual arm positioned over the gesturing robot (an ego-sensitive allocentric gesture). In Study 1, we explore the tradeoffs between these two types of gestures with respect to both objective performance and subjective social perceptions. Our results show fundamentally different task-oriented versus social benefits, with non-ego-sensitive allocentric gestures enabling faster reaction time and higher accuracy, but ego-sensitive gestures enabling higher perceived social presence, anthropomorphism, and likability. In Study 2, we refine our design recommendations by showing that in fact these different gestures should not be viewed as mutually exclusive alternatives, and that by using them together, robots can achieve both task-oriented and social benefits.
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The Experience and Effect of Adolescent to Robot Stress Disclosure: A Mixed-Methods Exploration
Social robots hold the potential to be an effective and appropriate technology in reducing stress and improving the mental health of adolescents. In order to understand the effect of adolescent-to-robot disclosure on momentary stress, we conducted an exploratory, mixed-methods study with sixty-nine US adolescents (ages 14–21) in school settings. We compared a generic, minimalist robot interaction among three different robot embodiments: physical, digital computer screen, and immersive, virtual reality. We found participants’ momentary stress levels significantly decreased across multiple interactions over time. The physical and virtual reality embodiments were most effective for stress reduction. In addition, our qualitative findings provide unique insights into the types of stressors adolescents shared with the social robots as well as their experiences with the different interaction embodiments.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1734100
- PAR ID:
- 10292248
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International Conference on Social Robotics
- Volume:
- 12483
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62056-1_50
