Should Robots Blush?
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Park, Soomi. 2023. Should Robots Blush?. Doctoral thesis, Queen Mary University of London [Thesis]
No full text availableAbstract or Description
Social interaction is the most complex challenge in daily life. Inevitably, social robots will encounter interactions that are outside their competence. This raises a basic design question: how can robots fail gracefully in social interaction? The characteristic human response to social failure is embarrassment. Usefully, embarrassment signals both recognition of a problem and typically enlists sympathy and assistance to resolve it. This could enhance robot acceptability and provides an opportunity for interactive learning. Developing a project entitled ``Embarrassed Robots" that uses a speculative design approach, this thesis explores how, when and why robots might communicate embarrassment. Three studies are presented in this thesis to examine the research aims. First, a series of specially developed cultural probes, scenario development and low-fidelity prototyping exercises are used to understand public responses on the connection between the robot and embarrassment. In addition, an animation survey is conducted to explore forms and motions as the signal of the robot's embarrassment. Finally, a video recording of the robot prototype audience is analysed to see the potential for the robot's social acceptance level. The results suggest that embarrassment is: relevant for managing a diverse range of social scenarios, impacts both humanoid and non-humanoid robot design, and highlights the critical importance of understanding interactional context. The design of signals should consider reflecting: human's non-verbal displays of embarrassment and the affective expressions of embarrassment's consequences (e.g., sad, excited, happy, scared etc.). The findings show that people will accept robots as a social subject if they see the affective signals because they evoke empathy. The research results also indicate that people will respond to robots with social expressions and gestures if they see affective signals and forms. This research concludes that embarrassment is fundamental to competent social functioning and provides social robotics opportunities to expand the approaches to increase social acceptance of robots.
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Item Type: |
Thesis (Doctoral) |
| Additional Information: |
The PhD thesis has been submitted but due to minor revisions the award is pending. |
| Keywords: |
social robotics, speculative design, social psychology, embarrassment |
| Related items in GRO: |
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| Date: |
January 2023 |
| Item ID: |
35498 |
| Date Deposited: |
15 Mar 2024 10:23 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Mar 2024 10:23 |
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URI: |
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