Telepresence robots have the potential to change our experiences in galleries and museums, allowing for a range of hybrid interactions for visitors and museum professionals, improving accessibility, offering activities or information, and providing a range of practical use cases (e.g. the robots augmenting museum exhibits).We present the results of 3 qualitative studies conducted in the UK exploring the acceptability (1 -interviews with museum professionals with no previous exposure to telepresence), acceptance (2 -focus groups for initial exposure to telepresence robots), and adoption (3 -interviews with museum professionals with long-term exposure to

This research study scopes the ethical implications associated with the deployment of social robots within workplace environments, in the context of an increased need of employee wellbeing. Progress in the domains of artificial intelligence (AI) and social robotics present a potential avenue for improving workplace wellbeing. However, it is necessary conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the impacts and ethical considerations associated with these emerging technologies. For this purpose, we carried out an ethical risk assessment for a telepresence robot programmed to function as a social robot in the workplace, which we named ’Cheerbot’. After introducing Cheerbot’s functions, the paper describes an ethical risk assessment process, which involves identifying potential hazards, the likelihood of the hazard occurring, potential consequences (harms), and a risk exposure rating for each hazard. Results are presented for three hypothetical scenarios, and potential mitigations for the highest rated risks are suggested. The findings highlight the value of proactively identifying and mitigating ethical risks from harms, ensuring responsible deployment of robotics aimed at supporting workplace wellbeing.

Museums are interested in designing emotional visitor experiences to complement traditional interpretations. HCI is interested in the relationship between Affective Computing and Affective Interaction. We describe Sensitive Pictures, an emotional visitor experience co-created with the Munch art museum. Visitors choose emotions, locate associated paintings in the museum, experience an emotional story while viewing them, and self-report their response. A subsequent interview with a portrayal of the artist employs computer vision to estimate emotional responses from facial expressions. Visitors are given a souvenir postcard visualizing their emotional data. A study of 132 members of the public (39 interviewed) illuminates key themes: designing emotional provocations; capturing emotional responses; engaging visitors with their data; a tendency for them to align their views with the system's interpretation; and integrating these elements into emotional trajectories. We consider how Affective Computing can hold up a mirror to our emotions during Affective Interaction

HCI has recently increased its interest in the domains of museums and gifting. The former is often oriented primarily towards the past, while the latter is often oriented towards the future, in terms of anticipating the receiver’s reactions. Our article provides a sustained and well-evidenced new theoretical framework on the role of time-orientation on the design of forward-oriented (gifting) experiences in past-oriented (museum) settings. This Temporal Experience Design Framework develops from the analysis of two such studies, one smartphone app and one VR experience using passive haptics. Both interventions prompted the user to reflect on the past while planning a gift or donation for future consumption. We apply a novel combination of analyses to both projects using the lenses of conversational storytelling, performance, and human geography. Our analyses reveal the power of orienting users towards the past and the future – simultaneously – to enhance the present moment of a performative engagement. Our aim is to provide a conceptual framework that can help design researchers to identify, name, and understand how time-orientation can be used to enhance user and visitor experience. We also extrapolate design guidelines that we expect may be fruitful outside these contexts.

We explore how a combination of manipulations and transitions can extend Substitutional Reality to create a highly personal Virtual Reality experience. Our design aimed to meet two challenges faced by museums: the limitations of object handling and the desire for visitors to create their own interpretations. Using a Research-through-Design methodology, we built a performance-led Mixed Reality (MR) experience that lets museum visitors physically handle 3D prints or scans of museum objects to share personal stories about them. The stories are recorded and donated to the participating museum. We reflect on the complex design and the findings gained from a two-day in-the-wild deployment to explore engagement and disruption through manipulations of physicality, visuals, and scale; the transitions between spaces; and a trajectory of storytelling performance. We chart a wide scope for Performative Substitutional Reality and draw implications for VR, MR, and performance-led research in any context.