Surfacebot embodiment
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We have developed the concept and implementation of surfacebot. It is intended as a movable character that is embodied in a tablet display attached to a robotic platform (refer to the attached sample pictures). It is capable of rendering facial expressions, speaking short utterances, moving, and displaying visual assets.
A variable number of surfacebots can be dynamically added in a play activity. There a number of editors to create user assets that can be included in activities. These support the inclusion of Text-to-Speech, recorded audio, pictures and drawings based on images from the internet or drawn on the tablet itself.
Smart Navigation
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The system prototype is expanded with smart navigation features to prevent children spending cognitive resources in driving bots. Children can give single destinations or paths for the bots to follow. When giving paths, users can include modifiers at any point/landmarks in the planned path.
Enhanced storytelling setting with smart toys
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We have explored how to mediate interaction in the storytelling setting via a tablet app. The features in the enhanced setting support children in developing storytelling skills, helping them to structure the creation of stories and reflect on the links between the different events. The app facilitates the transition from free play towards more reflection in the child storytelling process.
Social-emotional development support
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Enhancing children’s social awareness and their responses on social issues is also important. Through stories, they can safely experience social situations. The platform has been used in an experiment to explore how social-emotional development can be affected by the format of the storytelling table and the level of assistance-responsiveness of the system. Storytelling tables enhanced by technology can be useful to reinforce emotional understanding and story event recall.
Creative dancing tablets
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Following user-centered methods, we have designed, implemented and evaluated a dancing robotic tablet prototype for co-creative human-robot interaction. Two types of autonomous robot behavior were considered as creativity support and evaluated in a user study. While imitation behavior was perceived as more intelligent; the generation behavior that attempted to challenge users and be different to the users’ input led to a greater variety of gestures. Observations support the idea that users were inspired by the robot’s input to some extent.
All these components would not have been possible without the coordinated effort of bachelor/master students at the University of Twente, who implemented some parts or carried out field studies or helped in the technology exhibitions. We thank Roberto Campisi, Luce Sandfort, Wouter Timmermans, Wouter van Veelen, Silke ter Stal, Federico Fabiano, Hannah Pelikan, Jelle Pingen, Judith Zissoldt, Iris Visser, and Jaebok Kim for their hard work. As well, we are very grateful to teachers, parents/tutors and children who participated at different stages of the project, by giving input or testing the prototypes.
