User experience of conveying emotions by touch

Abstract

Abstract-In the present study, 64 users were asked to convey eight distinct emotion to a humanoid Nao robot via touch, and were then asked to evaluate their experiences of performing that task. Large differences between emotions were revealed. Users perceived conveying of positive/pro-social emotions as significantly easier than negative emotions, with love and disgust as the two extremes. When asked whether they would act differently towards a human, compared to the robot, the users' replies varied. A content analysis of interviews revealed a generally positive user experience (UX) while interacting with the robot, but users also found the task challenging in several ways. Three major themes with impact on the UX emerged; responsiveness, robustness, and trickiness. The results are discussed in relation to a study of humanhuman affective tactile interaction, with implications for human-robot interaction (HRI) and design of social and affective robotics in particular.

Affective Touch in Human–Robot Interaction: Conveying Emotion to the Nao Robot

“…This interpretation gains weight when we consider the results of our questionnaires regarding the ease and confidence with which the subjects perceived their conveyance of Love. This was perceived to be expressed more easily and confidently than for all other emotions (see [2]). In relation to type of touch, comparable findings over the HHI and HRI investigations, Hertenstein et al [25] report that "fear was communicated by holding the other, squeezing, and contact without movement, whereas sympathy was communicated by holding the other, patting, and rubbing" (p. 570).…”

“…All tactile contact between the participant and the robot was video recorded. At the end of the experimental run, the participant answered a questionnaire regarding his or her subjective experience of interacting with the robot via touch (the results concerning the analysis of this questionnaire is reported in [2]). …”

“…2 During the coding procedure, the experimenters were naïve to the emotion being communicated but retroactively labelled annotation sets according to each of the eight emotions. Following Hertenstein et al [25], four main touch components were evaluated by the experimenters: touch intensity, touch duration, touch location and touch type.…”

Reframing HRI Design Opportunities for Social Robots: Lessons Learnt from a Service Robotics Case Study Approach Using UX for HRI

“…As an essential part of the ongoing interaction between humans and robots, recently different emotional aspects have been investigated in the HCI studies in the HRI field. According to Alenljung [12], some emotional and interactive aspects related to the UX with a social robot, such as engagement, safety, acceptance, cooperation, and likeability, have been widely investigated in HRI but still are poorly connected with UX studies. In this paper, it is argued that UX design can be supportive in pointing out the relevance of evaluating socially interactive robots and user experience design that can be helpful in giving new tools to unfold several issues related to HRI.…”

“…In this research field, some investigations have already been performed [12,13], showing the importance of creating meaningful UX with social robots [14]. However, evidence suggests that, before designing meaningful UX, it is vital to depict the many aspects of the service design methodology [3].…”