Robotic User Interfaces

Abstract

Currently, we are experiencing the rise of a new interface paradigm: Robotic User Interfaces (RUI). We give a structured overview of current studies and implementations in the area of RUI and discuss their dis/advantages. In particular we classify the RUIs in terms of tool – toy scale, remote control – autonomy scale, reactive dialogue scale and anthropomorphism scale. Unfortunately, many of the robots currently celebrated in the media are not particular interesting for the area of RUI because they only resemble advanced remote controlled toys. Next we describe Muu and eMuu, two conversational robotic user interfaces developed at the Media Integration and Communications Group (MIC) of the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR). The research scope of Muu is dialogue coordination in mixed initiative situations with multiple participants and eMuu’s scope is the communication of emotions. We provide a short technical introduction to the robots and describe our research questions. Next we report on an upcoming experiment in which investigate user’s interaction with eMuu.