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Learning companion robots for young children are increasingly adopted in informal learning environments. Although parents play a pivotal role in their children's learning, very little is known about how parents prefer to incorporate robots…
Small talk can foster rapport building in human-human teamwork; yet how non-anthropomorphic robots, such as collaborative manipulators commonly used in industry, may capitalize on these social communications remains unclear. This work…
Group interactions are a natural part of our daily life, and as robots become more integrated into society, they must be able to socially interact with multiple people at the same time. However, group human-robot interaction (HRI) poses…
Online, people often recount their experiences turning to conversational AI agents (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) for mental health support -- going so far as to replace their therapists. These anecdotes suggest that AI agents have great…
The addressee estimation (understanding to whom somebody is talking) is a fundamental task for human activity recognition in multi-party conversation scenarios. Specifically, in the field of human-robot interaction, it becomes even more…
Delivery of digital behaviour change interventions which encourage physical activity has been tried in many forms. Most often interventions are delivered as text notifications, but these do not promote interaction. Advances in…
In this paper, we introduce a robotic agent specifically designed to analyze external environments and address participants' questions. The primary focus of this agent is to assist individuals using language-based interactions within…
We present and evaluate a prototype social robot to encourage daily exercise among older adults in a home setting. Our prototype system, designed to lead users through exercise sessions with motivational feedback, was assessed through a…
Active listening is a well-known skill applied in human communication to build intimacy and elicit self-disclosure to support a wide variety of cooperative tasks. When applied to conversational UIs, active listening from machines can also…
To address the global challenge of population aging, our goal is to enhance successful aging through the introduction of robots capable of assisting in daily physical activities and promoting light exercises, which would enhance the…
Chatbots have become increasingly prevalent. A growing body of research focused on the issue of human trust in AI. However, most existing user studies are conducted primarily with adult groups, overlooking teenagers who are also engaging…
In human-robot interactions, human and robot agents maintain internal mental models of their environment, their shared task, and each other. The accuracy of these representations depends on each agent's ability to perform theory of mind,…
Voice-based communication is often cited as one of the most `natural' ways in which humans and robots might interact, and the recent availability of accurate automatic speech recognition and intelligible speech synthesis has enabled…
This paper presents our recent research on integrating artificial emotional intelligence in a social robot (Ryan) and studies the robot's effectiveness in engaging older adults. Ryan is a socially assistive robot designed to provide…
Group segregation or cohesion can emerge from micro-level communication, and AI-assisted messaging may shape this process. Here, we report a preregistered online experiment (N = 557 across 60 sessions) in which participants discussed…
When people try to influence others to do something, they subconsciously adjust their speech to include appropriate emotional information. In order for a robot to influence people in the same way, the robot should be able to imitate the…
Since its viral emergence in early 2024, Comment Robert-a Weibo-launched social chatbot-has gained widespread attention on the Chinese Internet for its unsolicited and unpredictable comments on user posts. Unlike conventional chatbots that…
As the global population ages, many seniors face the problem of loneliness. Companion robots offer a potential solution. However, current companion robots often lack advanced functionality, while task-oriented robots are not designed for…
The increasing number of older adults who experience cognitive decline places a burden on informal caregivers, whose support with tasks of daily living determines whether older adults can remain in their homes. To explore how agents might…
As generative AI (GenAI) becomes increasingly widespread, it is crucial to equip users, particularly vulnerable populations such as older adults (65 and older), with the knowledge to understand its benefits and potential risks. Older adults…