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1. What's The Point?: Tradeoffs Between Effectiveness and Social Perception When Using Mixed Reality to Enhance Gesturally Limited Robots

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3434073.3444676  

   Hamilton, Jared; Phung, Thao; Tran, Nhan; Williams, Tom (March 2021, ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction)

   null (Ed.)

   Mixed Reality visualizations provide a powerful new approach for enabling gestural capabilities on non-humanoid robots. This paper explores 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). Specifically, we present the results of a within-subjects Mixed Reality HRI experiment (N=23) exploring the trade-offs between these two types of gestures with respect to both objective performance and subjective social perceptions. Our results show a clear trade-off between performance and social perception, 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. 

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2. Best of Both Worlds? Combining Different Forms of Mixed Reality Deictic Gestures

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3563387  

   Brown, Landon; Hamilton, Jared; Han, Zhao; Phan, Albert; Phung, Thao; Hansen, Eric; Tran, Nhan; Williams, Tom (March 2023, ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction)

   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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3. “Where is the z-axis?”: Negotiating Understanding of Servo Rotation through Gestures and Tools

   Yankova, Nickolina; Huang, Joey; Vitiello, Rosanna; Speer, Samantha; Orta Martinez, Melisa; Rosé, Carolyn; Peppler, Kylie (January 2023, International Collaboration toward Educational Innovation for All: International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) Annual Meeting 2023)

   Understanding abstract concepts in mathematics has continuously presented as a challenge, but the use of directed and spontaneous gestures has shown to support learning and ground higher-order thought. Within embodied learning, gesture has been investigated as part of a multimodal assemblage with speech and movement, centering the body in interaction with the environment. We present a case study of one dyad’s undertaking of a robotic arm activity, targeting learning outcomes in matrix algebra, robotics, and spatial thinking. Through a body syntonicity lens and drawing on video and pre- and post- assessment data, we evaluate learning gains and investigate the multimodal processes contributing to them. We found gesture, speech, and body movement grounded understanding of vector and matrix operations, spatial reasoning, and robotics, as anchored by the physical robotic arm, with implications for the design of learning environments that employ directed gestures. 

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4. Tradeoffs Between Effectiveness and Social Perception When Using Mixed Reality to Supplement Gesturally Limited Robots

   https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/ye2w5  

   Hamilton, Jared; Tran, Nhan; Williams, Tom (January 2020, International Workshop on Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality for Human-Robot Interaction)

   Mixed reality visualizations provide a powerful new approach for enabling gestural capabilities for non-humanoid robots. This paper explores 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 arrow positioned over the robot (an ego-sensitive allocentric gesture). We explore the trade-offs between these two types of gestures, with respect to both objective performance and subjective social perceptions. We conducted a 24-participant within-subjects experiment in which a HoloLens-wearing participant interacted with a robot that used these two types of gestures to refer to objects at two different distances. Our results demonstrate a clear trade-off between performance and social perception: non-ego-sensitive allocentric gestures led to quicker reaction time and higher accuracy, but ego-sensitive gesture led to higher perceived social presence, anthropomorphism, and likability. These results present a challenging design decision to creators of mixed reality robotic systems 

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5. Perceived Naturalness of Interpolation Methods for Character Upper Body Animation.

   https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90439-5_9  

   Xingyu Lei, Nicoletta Adamo-Villani (January 2022, Advances in Visual Computing. ISVC 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science)

   We compare the perceived naturalness of character animations generated using three interpolation methods: linear Euler, spherical linear quaternion, and spherical spline quaternion. While previous work focused on the mathematical description of these interpolation types, our work studies the perceptual evaluation of animated upper body character gestures generated using these interpolations. Ninety-seven participants watched 12 animation clips of a character performing four different upper body motions: a beat gesture, a deictic gesture, an iconic gesture, and a metaphoric gesture. Three animation clips were generated for each gesture using the three interpolation methods. The participants rated their naturalness on a 5-point Likert scale. The results showed that animations generated using spherical spline quaternion interpolation were perceived as significantly more natural than those generated using the other two interpolation methods. The findings held true for all subjects regardless of gender and animation experience and across all four gestures. 

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