Human-robot interaction (HRI) is now well enough understood to allow us to build useful systems that can function outside of the laboratory. We are studying long-term interaction in natural user environments and describe the implementation of a robot designed to help individuals effect behavior change while dieting. Our robotic weight loss coach is compared to a standalone computer and a paper log in a controlled study. We describe the software model used to create successful long-term HRI. We summarize the experimental design, analysis, and results of our study, the first where a sociable robot interacts with a user to achieve behavior change. Results show that participants track their calorie consumption and exercise for nearly twice as long when using the robot than with the other methods and develop a closer relationship with the robot. Both are indicators of longer-term success at weight loss and maintenance and show the effectiveness of sociable robots for long-term HRI.

Human-robot interaction research is maturing to the point where we can build systems that interact with people in their daily lives and provide support for particular needs. We propose a sociable robot system to help people who are losing weight to better track their progress. We describe related work in sociable robotics and ubiquitous computing and define the term sociable robot systems as systems that comprise a sociable robot, other technological devices, methods for interaction, and methods for relationship creation and maintenance. The system currently being implemented is described as well as the plans for testing the system in a real-world setting.

In this paper, we present evidence that although current models for introduction of robotic companions stress individual encounters, a social community alternative is promising. This argument emerges from an experiment we conducted with a small interactive robot at two local nursing homes. Here we give a brief introduction to the robot and our experience at the homes. We compare the robot used to a semi-robotic toy whose use initially suggested to us the benefits of social community models in the presentation of robotics to the elderly. We find that even where individual encounters are significant, sensitivity to social dimensions improve the benefits of these encounters

In several studies over 5 years, our interdisciplinary research team introduced My Real Babies, Aibos and Paros into two nursing homes and into the school and home life of children.† By referring to these sociable robots as relational artifacts, we draw on the psychoanalytic tradition, which emphasizes the human meaning of the person–artifact connection. We report on the relationships children and seniors formed with the robots, focusing on: (1) how they talk about the robots in relation to themselves and others; and (2) how their ideas about the robots and interactions with them reflect other feelings. In doing so, we distinguish ‘robot as Rorschach’, which refers to how relationships with robots express other things about a person's life, and ‘robot as evocative object’, which refers to how robots provoke reflection on such issues as what is aliveness, what is special about being a person, and what is the role of thought and feeling in defining human uniqueness. In case studies we report on individual differences among robot users and sociological factors that affect their engagement. The results may inform the design of future relational artifacts, especially as robots find medical and therapeutic vocations.

Nonverbal communication plays an important role in coordinating teammates' actions for collaborative activities. In this paper, we explore the impact of non-verbal social cues and behavior on task performance by a human-robot team. We report our results from an experiment where naive human subjects guide a robot to perform a physical task using speech and gesture. Both self-report via questionnaire and behavioral analysis of video offer evidence to support our hypothesis that implicit non-verbal communication positively impacts human-robot task performance with respect to understandability of the robot, efficiency of task performance, and robustness to errors that arise from miscommunication.

Social robots are robots that help people as capable partners rather than as tools, are believed to be of greatest use for applications in entertainment, education, and healthcare because of their potential to be perceived as trusting, helpful, reliable, and engaging. This paper explores how the robot's physical presence influences a person's perception of these characteristics. The first study reported here demonstrates the differences between a robot and an animated character in terms a person's engagement and perceptions of the robot and character. The second study shows that this difference is a result of the physical presence of the robot and that a person's reactions would be similar even if the robot is not physically collocated. Implications to the design of socially communicative and interactive robots are discussed.

This paper reports on a study of human subjects with a robot designed to mimic human conversational gaze behavior in collaborative conversation. The robot and the human subject together performed a demonstration of an invention created at our laboratory; the demonstration lasted 3 to 3.5 minutes. We briefly discuss the robot architecture and then focus the paper on a study of the effects of the robot operating in two different conditions. We offer some conclusions based on the study about the importance of engagement for 3D IUIs. We will present video clips of the subject interactions with the robot at the conference.

This work motivates interactive robot theatre as an interesting test bed to explore research issues in the development of sociable robots and to investigate the relationship between autonomous robots and intelligent environments. We present the implementation of our initial exploration in this area highlighting three core technologies. First, an integrated show control software development platform for the design and control of an intelligent stage. Second, a stereo vision system that tracks multiple features on multiple audience participants in real-time. Third, an interactive, autonomous robot performer with natural and expressive movement that combines techniques from character animation and robot control.