scholarly journals Social Robots as the Bride? Understanding the Construction of Gender in a Japanese Social Robot Product

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 105-120
Author(s):  
Jindong Liu
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Gender Relations ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Wage Earner ◽  
Engineering Approach ◽  
Software Studies ◽  
Multimedia Interface

This study critically investigates the construction of gender on a Japanese hologram animestyle social robot Azuma Hikari. By applying a mixed method merging the visual semiotic method and heterogeneous engineering approach in software studies, the signs in Azuma Hikari’s anthropomorphized image and the interactivity enabled by the multimedia interface have been analyzed and discussed. The analysis revealed a stereotyped representation of a Japanese “ideal bride” who should be cute, sexy, comforting, good at housework, and subordinated to “Master”-like husband. Moreover, the device interface disciplines users to play the role of “wage earner” in the simulated marriage and reconstructs the gender relations in reality. It suggests the humanization of the objects is often associated with the dehumanization and objectification of the human in reverse.

scholarly journals “Don’t Get Distracted!”: The Role of Social Robots’ Interaction Style on Users’ Cognitive Performance, Acceptance, and Non-Compliant Behavior

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianpaolo Maggi ◽  
Elena Dell’Aquila ◽  
Ilenia Cucciniello ◽  
Silvia Rossi
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Psychometric Evaluation ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Interaction Style ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Compliance Behavior ◽  
Compliant Behavior

Abstract Social robots are developed to provide companionship and assistance in the daily life of the children, older, and disable people but also have great potential as educational technology by facilitating learning. In these application areas, a social robot can take the role of a coach by training and assisting individuals also in cognitive tasks. Since a robot’s interaction style affects users’ trust and acceptance, customizing its behavior to the proposed tasks could, potentially, have an impact on the users’ performance. To investigate these phenomena, we enrolled sixty volunteers and endowed a social robot with a friendly and an authoritarian interaction style. The aim was to explore whether and how the robot’s interaction style could enhance users’ cognitive performance during a psychometric evaluation. The results showed that the authoritarian interaction style seems to be more appropriate to improve the performance when the tasks require high cognitive demands. These differences in cognitive performance between the groups did not depend on users’ intrinsic characteristics, such as gender and personality traits. Nevertheless, in the authoritarian condition, participants’ cognitive performance was related to their trust and the acceptance of the technology. Finally, we found that users’ non-compliant behavior was not related to their personality traits. This finding indirectly supports the role of the robot’s interaction style in influencing the compliance behavior of the users.

scholarly journals Comparing the Effects of a Different Social Partner (Social Robot vs. Human) on Children's Social Referencing in Interaction

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils F. Tolksdorf ◽  
Camilla E. Crawshaw ◽  
Katharina J. Rohlfing
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Interaction Design ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Social Referencing ◽  
Social Partner ◽  
Learning Procedure ◽  
Human Partner ◽  
The Social

Social robots have emerged as a new digital technology that is increasingly being implemented in the educational landscape. While social robots could be deployed to assist young children with their learning in a variety of different ways, the typical approach in educational practices is to supplement the learning process rather than to replace the human caregiver, e.g., the teacher, parent, educator or therapist. When functioning in the role of an educational assistant, social robots will likely constitute a part of a triadic interaction with the child and the human caregiver. Surprisingly, there is little research that systematically investigates the role of the caregiver by examining the ways in which children involve or check in with them during their interaction with another partner—a phenomenon that is known as social referencing. In the present study, we investigated social referencing in the context of a dyadic child–robot interaction. Over the course of four sessions within our longitudinal language-learning study, we observed how 20 pre-school children aged 4–5 years checked in with their accompanying caregivers who were not actively involved in the language-learning procedure. The children participating in the study were randomly assigned to either an interaction with a social robot or a human partner. Our results revealed that all children across both conditions utilized social referencing behaviors to address their caregiver. However, we found that the children who interacted with the social robot did so significantly more frequently in each of the four sessions than those who interacted with the human partner. Further analyses showed that no significant change in their behavior over the course of the sessions could be observed. Findings are discussed with regard to the caregiver's role during children's interactions with social robots and the implications for future interaction design.

Critical success factors for application of social robots in special developmental schools

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-696
Author(s):  
Seyed Mohammad Sadegh Khaksar ◽  
Bret Slade ◽  
Jennifer Wallace ◽  
Kaur Gurinder
Keyword(s):  
Special Needs ◽  
Critical Success Factors ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Students With Special Needs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Adoption And Implementation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address the role of social robots in the education industry, specifically within special developmental schools, as a part of an innovation technology portfolio. It identifies critical success factors (CSFs) arising from the development, adoption and implementation of social robots to educate students with special needs and assist their teachers. Design/methodology/approach The study engaged in longitudinal research over 12 months, tracking the role of the Matilda robot in providing educational services to students with special needs. Findings The results propose a three-faceted framework for social robot application in special education: development, adoption and implementation. Originality/value The study has shown the willingness of students and teachers to embrace social robot technology, and the CSF that arise from this adoption. It has also found that social robots achieve the greatest success within the development, adoption and implementation framework when championed by executive management, and peer teacher support.

scholarly journals Do Shy Preschoolers Interact Differently When Learning Language With a Social Robot? An Analysis of Interactional Behavior and Word Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils F. Tolksdorf ◽  
Franziska E. Viertel ◽  
Katharina J. Rohlfing
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Interaction Design ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Educational Settings ◽  
Learning Gain ◽  
Robot Interaction

Temperamental traits can decisively influence how children enter into social interaction with their environment. Yet, in the field of child–robot interaction, little is known about how individual differences such as shyness impact on how children interact with social robots in educational settings. The present study systematically assessed the temperament of 28 preschool children aged 4–5 years in order to investigate the role of shyness within a dyadic child–robot interaction. Over the course of four consecutive sessions, we observed how shy compared to nonshy children interacted with a social robot during a word-learning educational setting and how shyness influenced children’s learning outcomes. Overall, results suggested that shy children not only interacted differently with a robot compared to nonshy children, but also changed their behavior over the course of the sessions. Critically, shy children interacted less expressively with the robot in general. With regard to children’s language learning outcomes, shy children scored lower on an initial posttest, but were able to close this gap on a later test, resulting in all children retrieving the learned words on a similar level. When intertest learning gain was considered, regression analyses even confirmed a positive predictive role of shyness on language learning gains. Findings are discussed with regard to the role of shyness in educational settings with social robots and the implications for future interaction design.

Success Drivers of Urban Haats Selling Craft Products

2020 ◽  
pp. 097300522096468
Author(s):  
Rajesh Gupta ◽  
Piyush Kumar Sinha ◽  
Akash Sahu ◽  
Vandana Sood
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Rural Economy ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Role Based ◽  
Craft Industry ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Market Separations ◽  
Method Approach

Craft industry is as much the mainstay of the rural economy after agriculture. It provides occupation to a large section of population. However, it is characterised by fragmented individual artisans on one side and dispersed customers on the other. It also suffers from market separations. Urban haats were set up with the objective to present artisans and buyer on one platform and reduce these separations. In this study urban haats have been conceptualised as marketplaces that bring artisans and customers at one place to optimise their respective values. They also serve as a tool for disintermediation and a social distribution initiative and represent a retailing initiative in the inclusive entrepreneurship domain. This study focusses on identifying drivers of success of urban haats. Using a mixed method approach, data was collected from Haat officials and NGO members through personal interviews. The data from artisans and customers was collected through a survey using a structured response format. The study was conducted at 18 haats in 10 states. The study highlights the factors that drive satisfaction of artisans and customers and the role of administrators in making the marketplace a success. Customer consider diversity of the products, quality of the products, behaviour of the salesperson, price parity with other markets, buying experience, parking space and aesthetics of the stalls as major influencing factors for the recommendation of the haats to other customers. Most important attributes of the haats in driving artisan satisfaction were stall allotment system, haat location, advertisements, product promotion and monitoring. It is also found that while the infrastructure is necessary, it is not sufficient in enhancing the performance and sustainability of haats. Administration of these haats plays a defining mediating role. Based on these findings, an approach is proposed for success of urban haats.

scholarly journals Mitigating Children’s Pain and Anxiety during Blood Draw Using Social Robots

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1211
Author(s):  
Matthijs H. J. Smakman ◽  
Koen Smit ◽  
Lotte Buser ◽  
Tom Monshouwer ◽  
Nigel van Putten ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Young Patients ◽  
Hospital Setting ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Blood Collection ◽  
Medical Procedure ◽  
Blood Draw ◽  
The Social ◽  
Children's Pain

Young pediatric patients who undergo venipuncture or capillary blood sampling often experience high levels of pain and anxiety. This often results in distressed young patients and their parents, increased treatment times, and a higher workload for healthcare professionals. Social robots are a new and promising tool to mitigate children’s pain and anxiety. This study aims to purposefully design and test a social robot for mitigating stress and anxiety during blood draw of children. We first programmed a social robot based on the requirements expressed by experienced healthcare professionals during focus group sessions. Next, we designed a randomized controlled experiment in which the social robot was applied as a distraction method to measure its capacity to mitigate pain and anxiety in children during blood draw in a children’s hospital setting. Children who interacted with the robot showed significantly lower levels of anxiety before actual blood collection, compared to children who received regular medical treatment. Children in the middle classes of primary school (aged 6–9) seemed especially sensitive to the robot’s ability to mitigate pain and anxiety before blood draw. Children’s parents overall expressed strong positive attitudes toward the use and effectiveness of the social robot for mitigating pain and anxiety. The results of this study demonstrate that social robots can be considered a new and effective tool for lowering children’s anxiety prior to the distressing medical procedure of blood collection.

scholarly journals Survey of Emotions in Human–Robot Interactions: Perspectives from Robotic Psychology on 20 Years of Research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Stock-Homburg
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Artificial Emotions ◽  
Art Research ◽  
Research Domain

AbstractKnowledge production within the interdisciplinary field of human–robot interaction (HRI) with social robots has accelerated, despite the continued fragmentation of the research domain. Together, these features make it hard to remain at the forefront of research or assess the collective evidence pertaining to specific areas, such as the role of emotions in HRI. This systematic review of state-of-the-art research into humans’ recognition and responses to artificial emotions of social robots during HRI encompasses the years 2000–2020. In accordance with a stimulus–organism–response framework, the review advances robotic psychology by revealing current knowledge about (1) the generation of artificial robotic emotions (stimulus), (2) human recognition of robotic artificial emotions (organism), and (3) human responses to robotic emotions (response), as well as (4) other contingencies that affect emotions as moderators.

scholarly journals The Social Robot in Rehabilitation and Assistance: What is the Future?

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 244
Author(s):  
Daniele Giansanti
Keyword(s):  
The Elderly ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Social Robot ◽  
Clinical Use ◽  
Research Development ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Collaborative Robotics ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future

This commentary aims to address the field of social robots both in terms of the global situation and research perspectives. It has four polarities. First, it revisits the evolutions in robotics, which, starting from collaborative robotics, has led to the diffusion of social robots. Second, it illustrates the main fields in the employment of social robots in rehabilitation and assistance in the elderly and handicapped and in further emerging sectors. Third, it takes a look at the future directions of the research development both in terms of clinical and technological aspects. Fourth, it discusses the opportunities and limits, starting from the development and clinical use of social robots during the COVID-19 pandemic to the increase of ethical discussion on their use.

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