Most of my research time goes into conducting ethnographic fieldwork and exploratory laboratory studies to understand social aspects of robotic technology and create design variables. I use this understanding to create models of robot behavior and implement these models different robotic platforms including Honda’s ASIMO, ATR's Robovie, and Hiroshi Ishiguro's Geminoid. I then test the effectiveness and appropriateness of these models in laboratory experiments.

Co-operation with Robots

Most research in robotics is built on the assumption that robots are co-operative agents. What happens if we put people in a competitive situation with a robot? In a controlled laboratory experiment, I investigated how competition and co-operation affected people's perceptions of Honda's ASIMO. I compared people’s perceptions of ASIMO in a scenario where the robot co-operated with a human partner and in one where it competed with the human partner. I found that people perceived the robot as more socially desirable and intelligent when they co-operated with the robot. Strong gender effects appeared in our analysis.

See our RO-MAN'06 paper [ PDF 750KB ], and a video [AVI (20MB)] of this experiment.

Design of Social Gaze

In my dissertation research, I investigate how "social gaze" should be designed for humanoid robots. In a first experiment, I created a model of human-like gaze behavior using empirical data and implemented this model in ASIMO to perform human-like gaze behavior in a storytelling task. I manipulated the amount of gaze received by listener of the story and found that people performed better recalling ASIMO’s story when they were looked at longer. Strong effects of gender appeared also in this experiment.

See our Humanoids’06 paper [ PDF 500KB ] and movie [AVI (20MB)] of this experiment.

I spent Fall of 2007 at ATR International, Japan where I worked with Hiroshi Ishiguro and Takayuki Kanda on designing human-like gaze behavior for Robovie R2. I investigated human gaze behavior in two-party and three-party interaction situations in Japanese culture and developed a human-like gaze model. I implemented this model on Robovie R2 and evaluated the effectiveness of the model in a laboratory experiment. I am currently in the process of analyzing the results of the experiment.

I am currently in the process of analyzing the results of the experiment. A paper or manuscript will be here soon.

I conducted a long-term ethnographic study of how people interact with and perceive robots in a hospital organization. Through qualitative observations and semi-structured interviews, I collected data in two research sites over the period of a year. My analysis showed that people who worked in high-stress, emotinally-involved jobs had negative experiences with the robot while workers who were in lower-stress positions thought that the robot improved their workflow and accepted the adoption of the robot to their workflow.

See our HRI’08 paper [ PDF 1MB ].
Winner of the Best Paper Award.

I am also interested in the design and development of Ubicomp applications as intelligent technology embedded in our everyday environment such as walls, chairs, etc.

The Abstract interfaces project explored the use of simple abstract attributes and motion in the design of social interfaces. This approach builds on previous work on perceptual causality, which suggests that simple displays in motion can evoke high-level social and emotional content.

See our DIS’06 paper [ PDF 1.3MB ] on this work.

The SenseChair project explores how robotic technology, designed in forms as familiar as home appliances might be used to assist elders and those who provide care. SenseChair serves us as a research platform to understand how we can help elders stay independently, and offer them physical and emotional support.

See our DUX’05 paper [ PDF 1.8MB ] on this work.

On the development end of this project, I am collaborating with Carlos Guestrin from MLD and Andreas Krause from CSD to achieve seating activity recognition with near-optimally placed minimum number of pressure sensors.

See our UIST’07 paper [ PDF 2.5MB ] on this work.