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Should social robots become part of our society?
Embedded in an exciting crime story, the science comic by Oliver Korn and Jonas Grund conveys the current state and outlook of science on social robots.
The story takes place in the near future: In an international project, scientists are researching the requirements for social robots for the health sector. Shortly before the prototype of a nursing robot is used in a field study, it disappears without a trace. In her first major case, the young inspector Kira embarks on a journey into the world of science. In the process, she learns a lot about social robots, AI and the world of international scientific cooperation. Again and again, critical voices are heard: anti-robot activists protest against automation and a dwindling of humanity and empathy. Even in the Commissioner's family, the possible care of elderly people by robots is controversially discussed.
The overarching goal is to build knowledge across all age groups so that the advantages and disadvantages of these new technologies can be discussed controversially but knowledgeably. "Social Robots - a Science Comic" is a contribution to an informed discussion in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, ethics and politics and is thus also suitable as a teaching and learning tool.
The comic was conceived and designed for young people and adults. In particular, however, for those who have hardly come into contact with social robots and artificial intelligence so far. Another target group are people working in the health care sector, because the care and nursing of elderly people are considered to be one of the most important areas of application for social robots in the future.
DINA4 portrait format, hardcover thread stitching, published in German and English. Self-published by the Affective & Cognitive Institute (ACI), Offenburg University.
Recent advances in motion recognition allow the development of Context-Aware Assistive Systems (CAAS) for industrial workplaces that go far beyond the state of the art: they can capture a user's movement in real-time and provide adequate feedback. Thus, CAAS can address important questions, like Which part is assembled next? Where do I fasten it? Did an error occur? Did I process the part in time? These new CAAS can also make use of projectors to display the feedback within the corresponding area on the workspace (in-situ). Furthermore, the real-time analysis of work processes allows the implementation of motivating elements (gamification) into the repetitive work routines that are common in manual production. In this chapter, the authors first describe the relevant backgrounds from industry, computer science, and psychology. They then briefly introduce a precedent implementation of CAAS and its inherent problems. The authors then provide a generic model of CAAS and finally present a revised and improved implementation.
With major intellectual properties there is a long tradition of cross-media value chains -- usually starting with books and comics, then transgressing to film and TV and finally reaching interactive media like video games. In recent years the situation has changed: (1) smaller productions start to establish cross media value chains; (2) there is a trend from sequential towards parallel content production. In this work we describe how the production of a historic documentary takes a cross media approach right from the start. We analyze how this impacts the content creation pipelines with respect to story, audience and realization. The focus of the case study is the impact on the production of a documentary game. In a second step we reflect on the experiences gained so far and derive recommendations for future small-scale cross media productions.
Well-designed and informative product presentations can support consumers in making purchase decisions. There are plenty of facts and details about a product of interest. However, also emotions are an important aspect for the purchase decision. The unique visualization opportunities of virtual reality (VR) can give users of VR applications the feeling of being there (telepresence). The applications can intensely engage them in a flow experience, comprising the four dimensions of enjoyment, curiosity, focused attention and control. In this work, we claim that VR product presentations can create subjective product experiences for consumers and motivate them to reuse this innovative type of product presentation in the future, by immersing them in a virtual world and causing them to interact with it. To verify the conceptual model a study was conducted with 551 participants who explored a VR hotel application. The results indicate that VR product presentations evoke positive emotions among consumers. The virtual experience made potential customers focus their attention on the virtual world and aroused their curiosity about getting more information about the product in an enjoyable way. In contrast to the theoretical assumption, control did not influence the users’ behavioral intentions to reuse VR product presentation. We conclude that VR product presentations create a feeling of telepresence, which leads to a flow experience that contributes to the behavioral intention of users to reuse VR product presentations in the future.
Gamification is increasingly successful in the field of education and health. However, beyond call-centers and applications in human resources, its utilization within companies remains limited. In this paper, we examine the acceptance of gamification in a large company (with over 17,000 employees) across three generations, namely X, Y, and Z. Furthermore, we investigate which gamification elements are suited for business contexts, such as the dissemination of company principles and facts, or the organization of work tasks. To this end, we conducted focus group discussions, developed the prototype of a gamified company app, and performed a large-scale evaluation with 367 company employees. The results reveal statistically significant intergenerational disparities in the acceptance of gamification: younger employees, especially those belonging to Generation Z, enjoy gamification more than older employees and are most likely to engage with a gamified app in the workplace. The results further show a nuanced range of preferences regarding gamification elements: avatars are popular among all generations, badges are predominantly appreciated by Generations Z and Y, while leaderboards are solely liked by Generation Z. Drawing upon these insights, we provide recommendations for future gamification projects within business contexts. We hope that the results of our study regarding the preferences of the gamification elements and understanding generational differences in acceptance and usage of gamification will help to create more engaging and effective apps, especially within the corporate landscape.
Digital, virtual environments and the metaverse are rapidly taking shape and will generate disruptive changes in the areas of ethics, privacy, safety, and how the relationships between human beings will be developed. To uncover some of some of the implications that will impact those areas, this study investigates the perceptions of 101 younger people from the generations Y and Z. We present a first exploratory analysis of the findings, focusing on knowledge and self-perception. Results show that these young generations are seriously doubting their knowledge on the metaverse and virtual worlds – regarding both the definition and the usage. It is interesting to see only a medium confidence level, considering that the participants are young and from an academic environment, which should increase their interest in and the affinity towards virtual worlds. Males from both generations perceive themselves as significantly more knowledgeable than females. Regarding a fitting definition, almost 40% agreed on the metaverse as a “universal and immersive virtual world that is made accessible using virtual reality and augmented reality technologies”. Regarding the topic in general, several participants (almost 40%) considered themselves sceptics or “just” users (38%). Interestingly, generation Y participants were more likely than the younger generation Z participants to identify themselves as early adopters or innovators. In result, the considerable amount of “mixed feelings” regarding digital, virtual environments and the metaverse shows that in-depth studies on the perception of the metaverse as well as its ethical and integrity implications are required to create more accessible, inclusive, safe, and inclusive digital, virtual environments.
We present the design of a system combining augmented reality (AR) and gamification to support elderly persons’ rehabilitation activities. The system is attached to the waist; it collects detailed movement data and at the same time augments the user’s path by projections. The projected AR-elements can provide location-based information or incite movement games. The collected data can be observed by therapists. Based on this data, the challenge level can be more frequently adapted, keeping up the patient’s motivation. The exercises can involve cognitive elements (for mild cognitive impairments), physiological elements (rehabilitation), or both. The overall vision is an individualized and gamified therapy. Thus, the system also offers application scenarios beyond rehabilitation in sports. In accordance with the methodology of design thinking, we present a first specification and a design vision based on inputs from business experts, gerontologists, physiologists, psychologists, game designers, cognitive scientists and computer scientists.
In this article, we present a taxonomy in Robot-Assisted Training; a growing body of research in Human–Robot Interaction which focuses on how robotic agents and devices can be used to enhance user’s performance during a cognitive or physical training task. Robot-Assisted Training systems have been successfully deployed to enhance the effects of a training session in various contexts, i.e., rehabilitation systems, educational environments, vocational settings, etc. The proposed taxonomy suggests a set of categories and parameters that can be used to characterize such systems, considering the current research trends and needs for the design, development and evaluation of Robot-Assisted Training systems. To this end, we review recent works and applications in Robot-Assisted Training systems, as well as related taxonomies in Human–Robot Interaction. The goal is to identify and discuss open challenges, highlighting the different aspects of a Robot-Assisted Training system, considering both robot perception and behavior control.
Brand identification has the potential of shaping individuals' attitudes, performance and commitment within learning and work contexts. We explore these effects, by incorporating elements of branded identification within gamified environments. We report a study with 44 employees, in which task performance and emotional outcomes are assessed in a real-world assembly scenario - namely, while performing a soldering task. Our results indicate that brand identification has a direct impact on individuals' attitude towards the task at hand: while instigating positive emotions, aversion and reactance also arise.
Dieser Artikel gibt einen Überblick der Möglichkeiten kontextbewusster Systeme und erläutert, wie diese die Autonomie zugleich erweitern und begrenzen können. Anwendungsbeispiele wie autonomes Fahren, Rehabilitation, industrielle Arbeit und Robotik zeigen die technischen Möglichkeiten auf. Neben der Erkennung von räumlichen Details werden auch die Potenziale der Erkennung von Emotionen beschrieben. Dabei wird zugunsten der Allgemeinverständlichkeit auf eine tiefe technische Detaillierung verzichtet, zugleich aber auf die jeweils relevante Forschungsliteratur verweisen.
Social robots are robots interacting with humans not only in collaborative settings, but also in personal settings like domestic services and healthcare. Some social robots simulate feelings (companions) while others just help lifting (assistants). However, they often incite both fascination and fear: what abilities should social robots have and what should remain exclusive to humans? We provide a historical background on the development of robots and related machines (1), discuss examples of social robots (2) and present an expert study on their desired future abilities and applications (3) conducted within the Forum of the European Active and Assisted Living Programme (AAL). The findings indicate that most technologies required for the social robots' emotion sensing are considered ready. For care robots, the experts approve health-related tasks like drawing blood while they prefer humans to do nursing tasks like washing. On a larger societal scale, the acceptance of social robots increases highly significantly with familiarity, making health robots and even military drones more acceptable than sex robots or child companion robots for childless couples. Accordingly, the acceptance of social robots seems to decrease with the level of face-to-face emotions involved.
Deafblindness is a condition that limits communication capabilities primarily to the haptic channel. In the EU-funded project SUITCEYES we design a system which allows haptic and thermal communication via soft interfaces and textiles. Based on user needs and informed by disability studies, we combine elements from smart textiles, sensors, semantic technologies, image processing, face and object recognition, machine learning, affective computing, and gamification. In this work, we present the underlying concepts and the overall design vision of the resulting assistive smart wearable.
Defining Recrutainment: A Model and a Survey on the Gamification of Recruiting and Human Resources
(2017)
Recrutainment, is a hybrid word combining recruiting and entertainment. It describes the combination of activities in human resources and gamification. Concepts and methods from game design are now used to assess and select future employees. Beyond this area, recrutainment is also applied for internal processes like professional development or even marketing campaigns. This paper’s contribution has four components: (1) we provide a conceptual background, leading to a more precise definition of recrutainment; (2) we develop a new model for analyzing solutions in recrutainment; (3) we present a corpus of 42 applications and use the new model to assess their strengths and potentials; (4) we provide a bird’s eye view on the state of the art in recrutainment and show the current weighting of gamification and recruiting aspects.
Applications helping us to maintain the focus on work are called “Zenware” (from concentration and Zen). While form factors, use cases and functionality vary, all these applications have a common goal: creating uninterrupted, focused attention on the task at hand. The rise of such tools exemplifies the users’ desire to control their attention within the context of omnipresent distraction. In expert interviews we investigate approaches in the context of attention-management at the workplace of knowledge workers. To gain a broad understanding, we use judgement sampling in interviews with experts from several disciplines. We especially explore how focus and flow can be stimulated. Our contribution has four components: a brief overview on the state of the art (1), a presentation of the results (2), strategies for coping with digital distractions and design guidelines for future Zenware (3) and an outlook on the overall potential in digital work environments (4).
Gamifying rehabilitation is an efficient way to improve motivation and exercise frequency. However, between flow theory, self-determination theory or Bartle's player types there is much room for speculation regarding the mechanics required for successful gamification, which in turn leads to increased motivation. For our study, we selected a gamified solution for motion training (an exergame) where the playful design elements are extremely simple. The contribution is three-fold: we show best practices from the state of the art, present a study analyzing the effects of simple gamification mechanics on a quantitative and on a qualitative level and discuss strategies for playful design in therapeutic movement games.
Designing Authentic Emotions for Non-Human Characters. A Study Evaluating Virtual Affective Behavior
(2017)
While human emotions have been researched for decades, designing authentic emotional behavior for non-human characters has received less attention. However, virtual behavior not only affects game design, but also allows creating authentic avatars or robotic companions. After a discussion of methods to model and recognize emotions, we present three characters with a decreasing level of human features and describe how established design techniques can be adapted for such characters. In a study, 220 participants assess these characters' emotional behavior, focusing on the emotion "anger". We want to determine how reliable users can recognize emotional behavior, if characters increasingly do not look and behave like humans. A secondary aim is determining if gender has an impact on the competence in emotion recognition. The findings indicate that there is an area of insecure attribution of virtual affective behavior not distant but close to human behavior. We also found that at least for anger, men and women assess emotional behavior equally well.
This work demonstrates the potentials of procedural content generation (PCG) for games, focusing on the generation of specific graphic props (reefs) in an explorer game. We briefly portray the state-of-the-art of PCG and compare various methods to create random patterns at runtime. Taking a step towards the game industry, we describe an actual game production and provide a detailed pseudocode implementation showing how Perlin or Simplex noise can be used efficiently. In a comparative study, we investigate two alternative implementations of a decisive game prop: once created traditionally by artists and once generated by procedural algorithms. 41 test subjects played both implementations. The analysis shows that PCG can create a user experience that is significantly more realistic and at the same time perceived as more aesthetically pleasing. In addition, the ever-changing nature of the procedurally generated environments is preferred with high significance, especially by players aged 45 and above.
This chapter portrays the historical and mathematical background of dynamic and procedural content generation (PCG). We portray and compare various PCG methods and analyze which mathematical approach is suited for typical applications in game design. In the next step, a structural overview of games applying PCG as well as types of PCG is presented. As abundant PCG content can be overwhelming, we discuss context-aware adaptation as a way to adapt the challenge to individual players’ requirements. Finally, we take a brief look at the future of PCG.
We present the design outline of a context-aware interactive system for smart learning in the STEM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). It is based on a gameful design approach and enables "playful coached learning" (PCL): a learning process enriched by gamification but also close to the learner's activities and emotional setting. After a brief introduction on related work, we describe the technological setup, the integration of projected visual feedback and the use of object and motion recognition to interpret the learner's actions. We explain how this combination enables rapid feedback and why this is particularly important for correct habit formation in practical skills training. In a second step, we discuss gamification methods and analyze which are best suited for the PCL system. Finally, emotion recognition, a major element of the final PCL design not yet implemented, is briefly outlined.