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M.E.U. Ligthart

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5 records found

Conference paper (2020) - Mike E.U. Ligthart, Mark Neerincx, Koen Hindriks
In this paper we specify and validate three interaction design patterns for an interactive storytelling experience with an autonomous social robot. The patterns enable the child to make decisions about the story by talking with the robot, reenact parts of the story together with the robot, and recording self-made sound effects. The design patterns successfully support children's engagement and agency. A user study (N = 27, 8-10 y.o.) showed that children paid more attention to the robot, enjoyed the storytelling experience more, and could recall more about the story, when the design patterns were employed by the robot during storytelling. All three aspects are important features of engagement. Children felt more autonomous during storytelling with the design patterns and highly appreciated that the design patterns allowed them to express themselves more freely. Both aspects are important features of children's agency. Important lessons we have learned are that reducing points of confusion and giving the children more time to make themselves heard by the robot will improve the patterns efficiency to support engagement and agency. Allowing children to pick and choose from a diverse set of stories and interaction settings would make the storytelling experience more inclusive for a broader range of children. ...

Lessons Learned When Doing HRI User Studies with Off-the-Shelf Social Robots

Conference paper (2019) - Shirley A. Elprama, An Jacobs, Mike Ligthart, Koen Hindriks, Katie Winkle
Nowadays, off-the-shelf social robots are used more frequently by the HRI community to research social interactions with different types of users across a range of domains such as education, retail, health care, public places and other domains. Everyone doing HRI research with end-users is invited to submit a case study to our workshop. We are particularly interested in case studies where things did not go as planned. Case studies describing research in the lab or in the wild are both welcome. Examples of unplanned experiences could include, but are not limited to, unexpected responses from the user, issues with the experimental setup or simply having challenges with transferring theory to the real world. In this workshop, we focus on off-the-shelf robots. In order to generalize and compare differences across multiple HRI domains and create common solutions, we will provide a template for your case study. We are interested in learning how such unexpected HRI results can be reported. In the workshop, we will discuss and study how failures are reported and be inspired to create a list of good ways to report failures, which can hopefully be inspiring for the HRI community. ...

Towards Autonomous Long-Term Child-Robot Interaction

Conference paper (2018) - Mike Ligthart, Koen Hindriks, Mark A. Neerincx
Pediatric oncology patients could benefit from bonding with a social robot and talking about their day in the hospital. With our research we aim to contribute to the development of a robot that is able to facilitate a child-robot bond autonomously and long-term. We propose to use robot-disclosure and a shared interaction history to create a child-robot bond where the child feels comfortable and familiar enough to talk about their day with the robot. ...

Lessons Learned When Doing HRI User Studies with Off-the-Shelf Social Robots

Conference paper (2018) - An Jacobs, Mike Ligthart, Shirley A. Elprama, Koen Hindriks, Kate Winkle
Today, off-the-shelf social robots are used increasingly in the HRI community to research social interactions with different target user groups across a range of domains (e.g. healthcare, education, retail and other public spaces). We invite everyone doing HRI studies with end users, in the lab or in the wild, to collect past experiences of methods and practices that had issues or did not turn out as expected. This could include but is not limited to experimental setup, unplanned interactions, or simply the difficulty in transferring theory to the real world. In order to be able to generalize and compare differences across multiple HRI domains and create common solutions, we are focusing in this workshop on experiences with often used off-the-shelf social robots. We are interested in identifying the underlying causes of the unexpected HRI results, e.g. the contextual, task, and user related factors that influence interaction with a robot platform. We will furthermore discuss and document (ad hoc) solutions and/or lessons learned such that they can be shared with the HRI community. As well as sharing specific case studies documenting real world HRI experiences, we further hope to inspire the continued sharing of open and insightful reflections within the HRI community. ...
Conference paper (2017) - Mike Ligthart, O. Blanson Henkemans, Koen Hindriks, Mark Neerincx
Children are eager to anthropomorphize (ascribe human attributes to) social robots. As a consequence they expect a more unconstrained, substantive and useful interaction with the robot than is possible with the current state-of-the art. In this paper we reflect on several of our user studies and investigate the form and role of expectations in child-robot interaction. We have found that the effectiveness of the social assistance of the robot is negatively influenced by misaligned expectations. We propose three strategies that have to be worked out for the management of expectations in child-robot interaction: 1) be aware of and analyze children's expectations, 2) educate children, and 3) acknowledge robots are (perceived as) a new kind of `living' entity besides humans and animals that we need to make responsible for managing expectations. ...