Antonia Lina Krummheuer

Experiences with an Emotional Sales Agent

With COSIMAB2B we demonstrate a prototype of a complex and visionary e-procurement application. The embodied character agent named COSIMA is able to respect a customer’s preferences and deals with him or her via natural speech. She expresses various emotions via mimic, gesture, combined with speech synthesis, and COSIMA is even able to consider the customer’s emotions via mimic recognition. As first observations show, this is a very promising approach to improve the bargaining with the customer or the recommendation of products.

Zwischen den Welten

In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten wurde eine Vielzahl von Forschungsfeldern etabliert, die sich mit der Entwicklung interaktiver Technologien beschaftigen, welche die klassische Bedienung des Rechners uber „windows, menues, and mouse“ (Dourish 2001: 14) uberwinden sollen (vgl. Dourish 2001; Suchman et al. 1999). Die verschiedenen Projekte konnen grob in zwei Richtungen differenziert werden. Einerseits sind die Bestrebungen des, ubiquitous computing’ zu nennen, die versuchen, computerbasierte Technologien in verschiedenste Bereiche des Alltags mchr oder weniger sichtbar zu integrieren, z.B. das intelligente Haus oder interaktive Kleidungsstucke. Andererseits sind Technologieentwicklungen zu beobachten, in denen Softwareprogramme und computerbasierte Artefakte personifiziert werden und dem Nutzer als Ansprechpartner gegenubertreten, wie z.B. Roboter oder Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA). Im Folgenden wird der Umgang mit Embodied Conversational Agents fokussiert. Dabei handelt es sich um autonome Softwareprogramme mit einer kunstlichen Intelligenz, die in einen dialogahnlichen Austausch mit dem Nutzer (oder anderen Agenten) treten konnen.

Reflecting on Co-creating a Smart Learning Ecosystem for Adolescents with Congenital Brain Damage

Special needs education is focusing on a complex interplay of cognitive (knowledge), physical (motor rehabilitation), and social (interaction) learning. There is a strong discrepancy between the institutional spaces in which learning takes place and the need for scaffolding these levels of learning. In this paper, we present a first part of an ongoing collaboration with a special needs education facility for adolescents with congenital and acquired brain damage, that is interested in exploring the transformation of the institutional space into a smart learning ecosystem. We exemplify our research approach with a case study of a corridor in the institution that serves as a testbed for the involvement of all parties, i.e. residents, staff, management, in this transformation process.

From Social Practices to Social Robots – User-Driven Robot Development in Elder Care

It has been shown that the development of social robots for the elder care sector is primarily technology driven and relying on stereotypes about old people. We are focusing instead on the actual social practices that will be targeted by social robots. We provide details of this interdisciplinary approach and highlight its applicability and usefulness with field examples from an elder care home. These examples include ethnographic field studies as well as workshops with staff and residents. The goal is to identify and agree with both groups on social practices, where the use of a social robot might be beneficial. The paper ends with a case study of a robot, which frees staff from repetitive and time consuming tasks while at the same time allowing residents to reclaim some independence.

Participating with limited communication means: Conversation analytical perspectives on the interactional management of participation structures

In the following, participation with limited communication means is discussed from an ethnomethodological and conversation analytical (CA) perspective. This perspective establishes a frame for the different contributions to the special issue at hand. The special issue provides a summary of reflections started and research results discussed in an exploratory workshop series on ‘Communicative impairment in interaction. A Nordic perspective on the social organization of disordered talk’, funded by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS) in 2014 (Grant number: 229915/ F10). The articles are gathered on the basis of two goals. First, we have a methodological interest in CA studies on communication disorders and aim to highlight their impact for clinical practice. We find that an emphasis on CA may contribute to shifting the prevailing research focus on communication disorders from a cognitive impairment perspective to the interactional management of joint activities, which also includes the physical and organisational environments in which persons with limited communication means participate. Second, this special issue derived from an attempt to get an overview of existing CA research on communication impairment in the Nordic countries of Europe, where there is currently a strong and diverse research agenda developing within the field of CA and communication impairment. It should be noted, however, that the collection of articles in this special issue is not exhaustive, and there are many more Nordic researchers working on communication impairment from a CA perspective. However, the contributions to this special issue are representative for the kind of work that is currently going on, and is on the rise.

Co-designing Social Robots With Cognitively Impaired Citizens

This Work-in-Progress paper describes current work and future challenges of co-designing social robots with cognitively impaired residents. The project has in time of writing ran more than two years, which allows the reporting of both technical outcomes and methodological challenges.

Who Am I? What Are You? Identity Construction in Encounters Between a Teleoperated Robot and People with Acquired Brain Injury

The paper highlights how the material affordances of a teleoperated robot (Telenoid) enable identity construction in interactions with people living with acquired brain injury (ABI). The focus is set on the identity construction of the robot in relation to both its operator and the interlocutors. The analysis is based on video recordings of a workshop in which people with ABI were communicating with a teleoperated robot for the first time. A detailed multimodal conversation analysis of video-recorded interactions demonstrates how identity construction (a) is embedded in the situated and interactional unfolding of the encounter and (b) is fragmented and reflexively intertwined with the identity construction of the other parties. The paper discusses how an understanding of identity as situated and interactional constructions contributes to the field of HRI and how teleoperated robots can be used in the field of communication impairment.

Trying-out a walking help: Participation through situated learning in the adjustment and assessment of welfare technology

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the discussion of how people with limited communication means become active participants in the assessment of welfare technologies. The article combines ethnomethodology with insights from Science and Technology Studies and emphasises the situated and multimodal practices that constitute the trial as a joint activity in which the impaired person becomes a competent participant and independent walker. The analysis is based on video recordings from a case study in which a person with brain injury is trying out a new type of walking help. The trial is understood as a situated learning process in which the participants prepare, enact and assess the performance of the technology-supported walking. The article distinguishes two iterative phases in which the impaired person is constituted as an independent walker: the adjustment and assessment of a body–device relation and, further, the performance and assessment of the activity the user can perform.

Users, Bystanders and Agents: Participation Roles in Human-Agent Interaction

Human-agent interaction (HAI), especially in the field of embodied conversational agents (ECA), is mainly construed as dyadic communication between a human user and a virtual agent. This is despite the fact that many application scenarios for future ECAs involve the presence of others. This paper critiques the view of an ‘isolated user’ and proposes a micro-sociological perspective on the participation roles in HAI. Two examples of an HAI in a public setting point out (1) the ways a variety of participants take part in the interaction, (2) how the construction of the participation roles influences the construction of the agent’s identity, and (3) how HAI, as a mediated interaction, is framed by an asymmetric participation framework. The paper concludes by suggesting various participation roles, which may inform development of ECAs.

Human-Computer Interaction

Human-agent interaction (HAI), especially in the field of embodied conversational agents (ECA), is mainly construed as dyadic communication between a human user and a virtual agent. This is despite the fact that many application scenarios for future ECAs involve the presence of others. This paper critiques the view of an ‘isolated user’ and proposes a micro-sociological perspective on the participation roles in HAI. Two examples of an HAI in a public setting point out (1) the ways a variety of participants take part in the interaction, (2) how the construction of the participation roles influences the construction of the agent’s identity, and (3) how HAI, as a mediated interaction, is framed by an asymmetric participation framework. The paper concludes by suggesting various participation roles, which may inform development of ECAs.