Eye contact between strangers, even fleeting, can spark interaction and foster connection, happiness, and belonging. Yet in public spaces, such encounters are often suppressed by “civil inattention,” with many people absorbed in their phones. We explore how reconfiguring the ambient environment with MirrorBot, a mobile robot with adaptive mirrors, can encourage social encounters by subtly redirecting glances. By shifting reflections between self- and mutual recognition, MirrorBot invites serendipitous eye contact, shared awareness, and low-stakes engagement. In a controlled 2×2 between-subjects study with 90 participants (45 dyads) across four conditions (MirrorBot, Bot-only, Mirror-only, and Control), we found that MirrorBot led participants to initiate conversation more often, feel greater closeness and togetherness, and have more enjoyable interactions. Our findings position robots not only as social agents but as socio-spatial interfaces that choreograph sight lines and shared attention in physical space, opening new possibilities for technologies that cultivate human connection in public life.

Various virtual locomotion techniques and visual transition methods are used in VR-based navigation research, yet few studies have systematically examined their effects on spatial learning, cognitive map formation, and navigational performance in complex indoor environments. We conducted a between-subjects study (N=142) in two high-fidelity VR hospital contexts, including free exploration and task-based wayfinding, while treating locomotion and viewpoint transitions as experimental factors. Spatial learning was measured through pointing, distance estimation, and sketch-map accuracy; performance was measured through completion time and distance traveled; and experience was measured through cybersickness, perceived presence, and usability. Locomotion techniques affected task completion time, with teleportation associated with faster performance in the task-based context. Spatial learning effects were mixed, with patterns indicating that techniques without viewpoint transitions may better support cognitive mapping. Empirical insights and guidelines are provided to improve the reliability and real-world applicability of VR-based wayfinding research.

Brief eye contact with strangers can foster connection, belonging, and positive affect, yet such moments are often scarce in public spaces. This paper investigates how a spatially situated robot can reshape the visual field of a shared space to influence how strangers notice and respond to one another. We present MirrorBot, a mobile robot equipped with two actuated mirrors that dynamically redirect reflections to reshape sightlines between people. In a study with 32 strangers in 16 pairs in a waiting-room setting, MirrorBot elicited patterns such as low-stakes icebreaking, nonverbal synchrony, joint sensemaking, asymmetric engagement, and avoidance. Participants also attributed multiple roles to the robot, such as mediator, observer, magnifier, or disrupter, revealing that its social meaning was fluid and co-constructed. Our work extends HRI by showing that robots can act not only as conversational partners but also as spatial mediators, curating opportunities for human–human connection through the reconfiguration of spatial relationships