Michael Burmester

User-centered design of a dynamic-autonomy remote interaction concept for manipulation-capable robots to assist elderly people in the home

In this article, we describe the development of a human-robot interaction concept for service robots to assist elderly people in the home with physical tasks. Our approach is based on the insight that robots are not yet able to handle all tasks autonomously with sufficient reliability in the complex and heterogeneous environments of private homes. We therefore employ remote human operators to assist on tasks a robot cannot handle completely autonomously. Our development methodology was user-centric and iterative, with six user studies carried out at various stages involving a total of 241 participants. The concept is under implementation on the Care-O-bot 3 robotic platform. The main contributions of this article are (1) the results of a survey in form of a ranking of the demands of elderly people and informal caregivers for a range of 25 robot services, (2) the results of an ethnography investigating the suitability of emergency teleassistance and telemedical centers for incorporating robotic teleassistance, and (3) a user-validated human-robot interaction concept with three user roles and corresponding three user interfaces designed as a solution to the problem of engineering reliable service robots for home environments.

Valence method for formative evaluation of user experience

This paper describes a method for formative evaluation of the user experience based on the user experience model of Hassenzahl [11]. It captures positive and negative feelings during the exploration of an interactive product. In a subsequent retrospective interview phase users indicate for each instance of a positive or negative feeling the product design aspects inducing it. This phase further employs the laddering interview technique [24] to reveal the meaning of product design aspects to the user and the underlying fulfilled or frustrated needs. The generated information helps designers to understand and optimize the user experience potential of a product.

How Users Perceive and Use Interactive Information Graphics: An Exploratory Study

This paper presents an exploratory empirical study about users’ reception and usage behavior with interactive information graphics. 14 participants took part in the study. We assume users to act interest-driven. Therefore no explicit tasks were assigned to participants. In order not to distract the user, retrospective thinking aloud was employed. Results show that (1) usage durations were heterogeneous between users and between different types of interactive information graphics; (2) users tended to watch introductory animations; (3) initial orientation without interaction on the first content screen (after intro) was rather long with 23 seconds on average; (4) story-based approaches seem to motivate users but might lead to less intensive reception of information; (5) several reception and usage problems have been identified regarding information presentation and interaction. Interactive information graphics tend to overwhelm users with too much information and disregard well-known principles and rules of the old media and web design.

Design of the Human-Robot Interaction for a Semi-Autonomous Service Robot to Assist Elderly People

Service robots could support elderly people’s activities of daily living and enable them to live in their own residences independently as long as possible. Current robot technology does not allow reliable fully autonomous operation of service robots with manipulation capabilities in the heterogeneous environments of private homes. We developed and evaluated a usage concept for semi-autonomous robot control as well as user interfaces for three user groups. Elderly people are provided with simple access to autonomous robot services through a handheld device. In case of problems with autonomous execution the robot contacts informal caregivers (e.g. relatives) who can support the robot using semi-autonomous teleoperation. To solve more complex problems, professional teleoperators are contacted who have extended remote access.

Semi-Autonomous Domestic Service Robots: Evaluation of a User Interface for Remote Manipulation and Navigation With Focus on Effects of Stereoscopic Display

In this article, we evaluate a novel type of user interface for remotely resolving challenging situations for service robots in domestic environments. Our focus is on potential advantages of stereoscopic display. The user interface is based on a control architecture that allows involvement of a remote human operator when the robot encounters a problem. It offers semi-autonomous remote manipulation and navigation with low-cost interaction devices, incorporates global 3D environment mapping, and follows an ecological visualization approach that integrates 2D laser data, 3D depth camera data, RGB data, a robot model, constantly updated global 2D and 3D environment maps, and indicators into a single 3D scene with user-adjustable viewpoints and optional viewpoint-based control. We carried out an experiment with 28 participants in a home-like environment investigating the utility of stereoscopic display for three types of task: defining the shape of an unknown or unrecognized object to be grasped, positioning the gripper for semi-autonomous reaching and grasping, and navigating the robot around obstacles. Participants were able to successfully complete all tasks and highly approved the user interface in both monoscopic and stereoscopic display modes. They were significantly faster under stereoscopic display in positioning the gripper. For the other two task types, there was a tendency for faster task completion in stereo mode that would need to be verified in further studies. We did not find significant differences in perceived workload between display types for any type of task. We conclude that stereoscopic display seems to be a useful optional display mode for this type of user interface but that its utility may vary depending on the task.

Access for all: HEPHAISTOS - a personal home assistant

In this paper, we describe a demonstrator which was developed in the course of the European project TIDE 1004: HEPHAISTOS (Home Environment Private Help AssISTant fOr elderly and diSabled). The demonstrator constitutes a hand held personal home assistant capable to control a selected range of electronic home devices. Its multimodal user interface is based on a coloured high resolution touch screen extended with speech input/output. The development process focused on taking into account requirements of elderly people and people with special needs. The usability of the personal assistant was evaluated in a series of user tests with subjects from this particular demographic groups.

Identifying Experience Categories to Design for Positive Experiences with Technology at Work.

In order to create positive experiences with technology at work we have go gain a better understanding of positive experiences at work in general. Here we describe how experience interviews can be used to distill experience categories that capture the essence of clusters of positive experiences at work. These experience categories can then form the basis of new positive experiences with technology at work. This process allows practitioners to draw from the wealth of positive experiences in areas that easily lend themselves to those experiences and apply them to areas that might not have been the focus of positive design so far. We find 21 distinct experience categories for situations at work and show how they can be applied when creating concepts for situations involving technology.

SMARTKITCHEN Media Enhanced Cooking Environment

This work-in-progress paper describes our project SMARTKITCHEN, an interdisciplinary research project focusing on interactive display deployment in the kitchen - in particular around the cooking area. By applying a user-centered design approach the project aims to examine how screen-based interactive digital media can be accessed naturally in a constrained environment during the cooking process using multimodal interaction. Our main focus is on exploring new directions of supporting social and emotional aspects of the cooking experience. In this work-in-progress paper, we provide an overview on research directions, envisioned use-cases, and used technologies.

Lessons learned interaktive Infografiken auf dem Prüfstand

Interaktive Infografiken sind ein weitverbreitetes Medium des Online-Journalismus. Eine Studie mit insgesamt 99 Teilnehmern zu den Ursachen von Rezeptionsund Nutzungsproblemen bei 23 Infografiken, die sich in Infografikkategorie, Visualisierungsformat, Anbieter, Thema, Codierung und Modalität unterscheiden, ergab 239 Probleme, die in 14 Problemcluster eingeteilt wurden. Es zeigt sich, dass Prinzipien des Web-Designs und der Web-Usability verletzt werden und zu Problemen führen. Zudem wird den Erwartungen der Nutzer hinsichtlich der Navigationsund Interaktionsgestaltung nicht ausreichend nachgekommen. Besonders schwerwiegend, weil bei insgesamt 13 der 23 Infografiken vertreten, ist die mangelnde Unterscheidbarkeit in der Darstellung von interaktiven und ausschließlich informierenden Elementen. Die Informationsinteressen der Nutzer zu den dargestellten Inhalten der Infografiken werden bei 9 Infografiken nicht erfüllt.

Wie wirkt der Care-O-bot 4 im Verkaufsraum?

Der Umgang mit Robotern ist für die meisten Menschen noch neu und es wäre schön, wenn er spielerisch und einfach wäre. Der Care-O-bot 4 kommt als „socially interactive robot“ in unterschiedlichen Bereichen zum Einsatz, in welchen soziale Interaktion stattfindet. Er nimmt dabei sein Umfeld wahr und reagiert darauf (Fong, Nourbakhsh & Dautenhahn, 2003). Die erste reale Umgebung, in welcher er eingesetzt wird, ist im Elektronikmarkt Saturn. Wir haben die Interaktion zwischen dem Care-O-bot 4 und den Kunden sowie Verkäufern in Form einer Mehr-Methoden-Studie untersucht. Der Schwerpunkt lag dabei auf der formativen (qualitativen) Evaluation der Wirkung (User Experience, UX) des Serviceroboters. Dabei haben wir sowohl emotionale, als auch dynamische Aspekte der Interaktion und UX betrachtet. Neben einer explorativen Feldstudie im Elektronikmarkt erfolgte ein Test des Care-O-bot 4 in einer Laborumgebung. Wir stellen das Vorgehen und die Ergebnisse vor.