Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant: balancing personality and control Drs. B.W. Meerbeek, PDEng. (Philips research) Drs. H.C.M. Hoonhout (Philips research) Ir. P. Bingley (Philips research) Dr. J.M.B. Terken (TU/e) First iCat user workshop – 27 th March 2006, Eindhoven

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 2 / 15 Overview Introduction Research questions and hypotheses Designing personality and levels of control Experiments in HomeLab Main findings

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 3 / 15 Background More robots in domestic environment (UNECE) –Human-robot interaction more important Media Equation (Reeves & Nass) –Social response encouraged if machine: uses full-sentence text or speech demonstrates task knowledge as well as reasoning can act autonomously on behalf of the user –Human-robot interaction human-human interaction –People assign personality to robots (a.o. Dautenhahn)

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 4 / 15 Personality and Control Personality of a machine can help users to form mental model and to interpret and predict its behaviour (Norman) –What personality do users prefer? As machines (personal robots) become more intelligent they can take over more tasks from humans –Who should be in control?

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 5 / 15 Context iCat, platform for human-robot interaction research Application: TV-assistant Facial expressions Head movement Multi-colour LEDs Camera (see) Microphone (hear) Touch sensors (feel) Speakers (speak)

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 6 / 15 Research questions Preliminary question: Is it possible to convey personality with a robot? And if so, What personality do users prefer? What level of control do users prefer? Is there an interaction between preferences for personality and for level of control?

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 7 / 15 Expectations No main preference for personality or level of control Personality should match the level of user control Low preferenceHigh preference Low preference Introvert, formal conscientious robot Extravert, agreeable, friendly robot Low user controlHigh user control Extrapolating from observations of human-human interaction:

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 8 / 15 Personality design (1) Facial expression, e.g. eyes move away Motion, e.g. head to chest Speech, e.g. low fundamental frequency (pitch) Linguistic style, e.g. use more formal words Catherine

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 9 / 15 Personality design (2) Lizzy Facial expression, e.g. more eyebrow movement Motion, e.g. faster head movements Speech, e.g. faster speech rate Linguistic style, e.g. chitchat

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 10 / 15 Levels of control Low user control –System-driven interaction style –Natural language dialogue High user control –User-driven interaction style –Command and control

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 11 / 15 Movie TV-assistant recommends programme to user Second clip First clip Catherine Lizzy Low user controlHigh user control Movie available on community website: play

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 12 / 15 Experiments Preliminary experiment demonstrated that personalities were recognized as intended Main experiment –Combinations of two personalities and two levels of control (2x2-design) –32 participants in experiment of 2 hours –Personality assessment –User preference

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 13 / 15 Summary of main findings Overall, there seemed to be a preference for Lizzy In initial interactions, low user control slightly preferred over high user control In longer term, preference may shift from low to high control Lizzy seemed most preferred with low user control Catherine matched better with high user control than with low user control People perceived more control with Lizzy than with Catherine (identical level of objective control)

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 14 / 15 Discussion Personality perception less clear in main experiment –Distributed attention Limited functionality of TV-assistant Relatively short interactions Single user

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 15 / 15 Thanks for your attention

First iCat users workshop Design and evaluation of a robotic TV-assistant 16 / 15 Personal robots More than 6 million personal robots in 2007 Both for entertainment and household tasks Number of robots for domestic use Source: UNECE x 1 million Entertainme nt & Leisure Vacuum cleaner lawn mower Other cleaning a robot is a mechanical device which performs automated tasks, either according to direct human supervision, a pre-defined program or, a set of general guidelines, using artificial intelligence techniques.artificial intelligence