Year: 2021
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Loneliness is an increasing health concern in the developed countries, yet modern communication technologies such as SNS fail to address this issue.At the same time, telepresence robots are becoming ubiquitous in our everyday lives.While a promising technology, we identify several issues with current mobile robotic telepresence systems: they are generally designed for one to one communication only, the robots tend to have a limited set of affordances and the continuous transmission of audio and video raises privacy concerns.To address these issues, we propose a new type of robots: virtually augmented multipresence robots.Virtually augmented multipresence robots facilitate physical ambient co-presence between non-collocated users through remote play.We developed a proof of concept prototype based on Haru, a social robot currently being developed by Honda Research Institute Japan.The proof of concept prototype was evaluated in an AB test, and while our pilot study remained inconclusive, anecdotal evidence suggests that virtually augmented multipresence robots do have the potential to facilitate co-presence among non-collocated users.We propose to conduct a field trial with a larger sample size as a next step.
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7134533938