Publications

One of the central challenges in designing autonomous vehicles concerns passenger trust and sense of safety. This challenge is related to passengers’ well-established past experience with non-autonomous vehicles, which leads to concern about the absence of a driver. We explored whether it is possible to address this challenge by designing an interaction with a simple robotic object positioned on the vehicle’s dashboard. The robot greeted the passenger, indicated that the vehicle was attentive to its surroundings, and indicated that the drive was about to begin. We evaluated whether the robot’s non-verbal behavior would provide the signals and social experience required to support passengers’ trust and sense of safety. In an in-person (in-situ) experiment, participants were asked to enter an autonomous vehicle and decide if they were willing to go for a drive. As they entered the vehicle, the robot performed the designed behaviors. Our findings indicated that participants’ trust ratings and safety-related experience were higher than those of a baseline group who did not interact with the robot. We suggest that robotic objects are a promising technology for enhancing passengers’ experience in autonomous vehicles.

Family dinners introduce an opportunity for quality family time which is significant for the development of emotional skills, life satisfaction and the establishment of a strong parent-child bond. However, family dinners are constantly challenged by mobile distractions. We present the design and preliminary evaluation of a peripheral Tangible User Interface, in the form of a table spinning top. The object is aimed at enhancing family quality time by raising awareness of mobile phone distraction and motivating family members to return their focus to the family activity. A preliminary user study with three families revealed high engagement and  increased motivation for stopping mobile distractions and re engaging in the family interaction. Our results suggest the prototype can assist in regulating digital interference in a constructive and positive way.

One of the main challenges parents face is recognizing and supporting the changing needs of their children. The Circle of Security (COS) psychology theory addresses this challenge by increasing parental mentalization, a parent’s ability to mentally envision her child’s mental states, and to engage in reflection on her own internal experiences. We present an exploratory design process of a tangible interface for parents of 5-7 years-old children, grounded in theoretical aspects from Attachment theory, Caregiving sensitivity theory, and COS theory. We designed three low-fidelity prototypes and evaluated them with four parents to generate initial insights about the potential of TUI as an aid for parental mentalization. Our work suggests that parents see potential in using a TUI to improve their parental mentalization abilities, however they report it is not easy and requires significant mental effort. Our work is a first step towards TUI as an aid for parental mentalization.

Couples’ ability to manage conflicts is fundamental in the discourse of romantic relationships. A supportive environment for conflict management highly depends on non-verbal communication cues. We explored the possibility to facilitate positive non-verbal cues by using autonomous furniture that do not alter the dyadic nature of the interaction. Couples discussed a subject of disagreement while seated on autonomous bar-stools. During the discussion, the stools rotated inward, directing partners toward one another. In the baseline condition, the bar stools were inactive. Our findings showed that the inward rotation facilitated couples’ non-verbal cues (e.g., eye-gaze  body-orientation), which highly contributed to their communication and decreased conflict intensity. The positive effect was also evident in the number of intimate touch occurrences. The bar-stools’ movement led to a significant increase in hand-holding, kisses, and hugs. This work highlights the great potential of leveraging autonomous furniture for enhancing romantic interactions while preserving their intimate and emotional nature.

Social robotic behavior is commonly designed using AI algorithms which are trained on human behavioral data. This training process may result in robotic behaviors that echo human biases and stereotypes. In this work, we evaluated whether an  interaction with a biased robotic object can increase participants' stereotypical thinking. In the study, a gender-biased robot moderated debates between two participants (man and woman) in three conditions: (1) The robot's behavior matched gender stereotypes (Pro-Man); (2) The robot's behavior countered gender stereotypes (Pro-Woman); (3) The robot's behavior did not reflect gender stereotypes and did not counter them (No Preference). Quantitative and qualitative measures indicated that the interaction with the robot in the Pro-Man condition increased participants' stereotypical thinking. In the No-Preference condition, stereotypical thinking was also observed but to a lesser extent. In contrast, when the robot displayed counter-biased behavior in the Pro-Woman condition, stereotypical thinking was eliminated. Our findings suggest that HRI designers must be conscious of AI algorithmic biases, as interactions with biased robots can reinforce implicit stereotypical thinking and exacerbate existing biases in society. On the other hand, counter biased robotic behavior can be leveraged to support present efforts to address the negative impact of stereotypical thinking.

Social awkwardness is a frequent challenge to healthy social interactions and can dramatically impact how people feel, communicate and behave. It is known that humor can invoke positive feelings and enable people to modify perspective of a situation. We explored whether using a non-humanoid robotic object performing humorous behavior can reduce social awkwardness between two strangers. The robot was peripherally incorporated into the interaction to ensure the natural social fow. We compared the impact of humorous and non-humorous robotic gestures on the human-human interaction. Objective and subjective measures indicate that despite being peripheral to the human-human interaction, the humorous robotic gestures significantly reduced the intensity of awkwardness between the strangers. Our findings suggest humorous robotic behavior can be used to enhance interpersonal relationships hindered by awkwardness and still preserve natural human-human interaction.

Having a sense of security is considered a basic human emotional need. It increases confidence, encourages exploration, and enhances relationships with others. In this study we tested the possibility of leveraging the interaction with a simple non-humanoid robot for increasing participants’ sense of security. The robotic behavior was designed with a psychology expert in attachment theory and was translated into the robot’s morphology by an animator. Specifically, the robot was designed to be attentive and responsive using lean, gaze and nodding gestures. We compared participants’ experience in the secure condition to the experience of participants who interacted with a non-responsive robot. We further compared the participants’ implicit sense of security between the robotic conditions and an additional baseline condition in which participants did not interact with the robot. Our findings indicate the potential in leveraging a simple non-humanoid robot for enhancing humans’ sense of security.

With recent advancements in AI, there are growing concerns about human biases implemented in AI decisions. Threats posed by AI bias may be even more drastic when applied to robots that are perceived as independent entities and are not mediated by humans. Furthermore, technology is typically perceived as objective and there is a risk that people will embrace its decisions without considering possible biases. In order to understand the extent of threats brought about by such biases, we evaluated participants’ responses to a gender biased robot mediating a debate between two participants (male and female). The vast majority of participants did not associate the robot’s behavior with a bias, despite being informed that the robot’s algorithm is based on human examples. Participants attributed the robot’s decisions to their own performance and used explanations involving gender stereotypes. Our findings suggest that robots’ biased behaviors can serve as validation for common human stereotypes.

Opening-encounters are an integral element of social interaction
and are essential for social relationships. Specifically, opening encounters between strangers form a complex social context and often involve awkwardness and tension. We explored whether augmenting everyday objects with autonomous capabilities can facilitate an opening-encounter between strangers. A pair of robotic bar-stools were designed to rotate participants sitting on them. We evaluated the opening-encounter experience in three conditions: bar-stools rotating participants towards one another; bar-stools rotating participants away from one another; and bar stools with no rotation. Our initial findings indicate that rotating participants towards each other led to positive encounters, encouraged social interaction, and increased interpersonal communication. The other two conditions were less likely to initiate social interactions. This preliminary study highlights the potential of facilitating positive opening-encounters using autonomous furniture that are perceived as a natural part of the interaction, without altering its human nature.

We evaluate whether an interaction with robots can influence a subsequent Human-Human Interaction without the robots’ presence. Social psychology studies indicate that some social experiences have a carryover effect, leading to implicit influences on later interactions. We tested whether a social experience formed in a Human-Robot Interaction can have a carryover effect that impacts a subsequent Human-Human Interaction. We focused on ostracism, a phenomenon known to involve carryover effects that lead to prosocial behavior. Using the Robotic Ostracism Paradigm, we compared two HRI experiences: Exclusion and Inclusion, testing their impact on a Human-Human Interaction that did not involve robots. Robotic ostracism had a carryover effect that led to prosocial behavior in the Human-Human Interaction, whereby participants preferred intimate interpersonal space and displayed increased compliance. We conclude that HRI experiences may involve carryover effects that extend beyond the interaction with robots, impacting separate and different subsequent strictly human Interactions.

Humor has various positive implications for our daily lives, and it has shown to improve human-robot interaction as well. To date, humor has been applied to robots that mimic human behavior thus missing out on improving interactions with the non-humanoid robots continually being deployed to our daily lives. In this work, we conducted an initial evaluation of the far-out possibility to create non-verbal humorous behavior for a robot with no human features. The robot’s humorous gestures were designed by a clown therapist, animator, and HRI expert. The initial evaluation compared participants’ responses to humorous and non-humorous robotic gestures. Our study indicates it is possible for a simple non-humanoid robot to communicate a humorous experience through gestures alone, provided the movements are carefully balanced to bring about this good humor encounter. This study’s gesture design insights can serve as frst steps toward leveraging humorous behaviors in nonhumanoid robots to enhance HRI.

Autonomous actuated-interfaces provide a unique research opportunity for shared-control interfaces, as the human and the interface collaborate using the physical interaction modality, manipulating the same physical elements at the same time. Prior studies show that sharing control with physical modality interfaces often results in frustration and low sense-of-control. We designed and implemented adaptive behavior for shared-control actuated-interfaces that extends prior work by providing humans the ability to anticipate the autonomous action, and then accept or override it. Results from a controlled study with 24 participants indicate better collaboration in the Adaptive condition compared with the Non-adaptive one, with improved sense-of-control, feelings of teamwork, and overall collaboration quality. Our work contributes to shared-control tangible, shape-change, and actuated interfaces. We show that leveraging minimal non-verbal social cues to physically communicate the actuated-interface’s intent, coupled with providing autonomy to the human to physically accept or override the shift-in-control, improves the shared-control collaboration

Emotional support in the context of psychological caregiving is an important aspect of human–human interaction that can significantly increase well-being. In this study, we tested if non verbal gestures of a non-humanoid robot can increase emotional support in a human–human interaction. Sixty-four participants were invited in pairs to take turns in disclosing a personal problem and responding in a supportive manner. In the experimental condition, the robotic object performed emphatic gestures, modeled according to the behavior of a trained therapist. In the baseline condition, the robotic object performed up-and down gestures, without directing attention towards the participants. Findings show that the robot’s empathy-related gestures significantly improved the emotional support quality provided by one participant to another, as indicated by both subjective and objective measures. The non-humanoid robot was perceived as peripheral to the natural human–human interaction and influenced participants’ behavior without interfering. We conclude that non-humanoid gestures of a robotic object can enhance the quality of emotional support in intimate human–human interaction.

Robot-Robot-Human Interaction is an emerging field, holding the potential to reveal social effects involved in human interaction with more than one robot. We tested if an interaction between one participant and two non-humanoid robots can lead to negative feelings related to ostracism, and if it can impact fundamental
psychological needs including control, belonging, meaningful existence, and self-esteem.

Companion robots have been suggested as a promising technology for older adults who experience loneliness. However, healthy older adults commonly reject robots designed to be an "artificial friend". We follow the approach of "companionship as a secondary function", in which a non-humanoid robot is designed with a primary function that older adults perceive as appropriate, and a secondary function of companionship. In a Zoom-based exploratory need study we unfold how older adults perceive the various aspects of a robot’s "companionship" as a secondary function. Our qualitative analysis reveals several use cases that older adults find to be appropriate for their daily routine, and classify them into three high-level categories: companionship as "attentive to me", companionship as "looking after me", and companionship as "experiencing together with me". Our findings indicate that robot companionship, when designed as a secondary function, is perceived by older adults as a multifaceted social experience.

We present an actuated-interface that is not only a tangible interface but also an autonomous object, designed as an independent entity that takes a similar role to the user’s role in an anagram word game. We highlight two leading interaction paradigms: Turntaking-actuation and Joint-actuation, and evaluate both in a qualitative interaction study with the autonomous actuated-interface.

This work presents Magnetform, a shape-change display toolkit designed to enable exploration of movement in soft materials. The toolkit allows designers with no technical knowledge to leverage their material expertise to experiment with shape-change. We present the toolkit design, and case studies with two design studios who used the toolkit for 15-days each. Through the presentation of their process, we reflect on two main themes: empowering designers to participate in shape-change exploration; and the developing practice of designing objects which integrate motion. We situate this work as part of the growing efforts in the TEI community to involve designers in the evolution of shape-changing interfaces, and demonstrate how material-oriented designers could contribute to this field in which materiality plays a major role in.

One of the challenges faced by healthy older adults is experiencing feelings of not “being-seen”: set aside and unacknowledged. Companion robots, commonly designed with zoomorphic or humanoid appearance show success among clinical older adults, but healthy older adults find them degrading and don’t accept companionship as a valid function. We present a novel non-humanoid robot, designed to overcome the low acceptance of companion robots. The robot’s design represents its primary function, a cognitive word game. Social interaction is conveyed as a secondary function, using non-verbal gestures, inspired by dancers’ movement. 39 healthy older adults interacted with the prototype in 3 conditions: Companion-Function; Game-Function; or No-Function. Results show the non-verbal gestures successfully evoked feelings of “being-seen”, and acceptance levels were influenced by the function, with game significantly higher than companion. We conclude that the high acceptance and rich social interaction of non-humanoid robots are a promising direction for this unique population.

Technology plays a major role in reproduction of art and craft. While increasing their accessibility to the public, re- production also raises questions concerning authenticity and quality. 3D Scanning and Printing have extended re- production boundaries, positioning it as a candidate for tak- ing part in the artistic process. In this work we suggest to consider the imperfection in the reproduction process as a distinguishing element that adds to authenticity. We present a “chain of digital reproductions”, a series of 3D printed objects, beginning from a reproduction of the original En- nion’s Blue Jug. Next to the last reproduction, a 3D Printer and scanner will print the next reproduction in the chain. The exhibited work will demonstrate how reproductions can gradually become independent of the original artwork and have their own unique meaning and aesthetics.

Understanding microbiology concepts is highly relevant for everyday life, with wide implications on health and environment. It is believed that these concepts should be taught at high-school level. Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) is a recommended approach for learning scientific concepts, that includes hands-on investigation, performing experiments, and gathering data. IBL is rarely applied in biology learning at schools, mostly due to three aspects: (1) Lack of immediate feedback as microorganisms are invisible; (2) costly equipment; (3) safety regulations. We present “My First Biolab”, a novel and accessible system enabling safe and sterile hands-on experimentation with microorganisms, for microbiology concepts through IBL. The system includes a custom-designed nylon bag containing the experiment’s biological materials, a magnetic peristaltic pump for circulation, a spectral sensor that monitors bacterial growth, a heat transfer plate for temperature control, and a smartphone UI for setting and monitoring the experiment in real-time.

Evaluating the interaction between people and non-humanoid robots requires advanced physical prototyping, and in many cases is limited to lab setting with Wizard-of-Oz control. Virtual Reality (VR) was suggested as a simulation tool, allowing for fast, flexible and iterative design processes. In this controlled study, we evaluated whether VR is a valid platform for testing social interaction between people and non-humanoid robots. Our quantitative findings indicate that social interpretations associated with two types of gestures of a robotic object are similar in virtual and physical interactions with the robot, suggesting that the core aspects of social interaction with non-humanoid robots are preserved in a VR simulation. The impact of this work to the CHI community is in indicating the potential of VR as a platform for initial evaluation of social experiences with non-humanoid robots, including interaction studies that involve different facets of the social experience.

The field of human-robot interaction typically studies the direct interaction between humans and robots. A much less studied domain is the robot’s influence on human-human interaction. We present a study measuring the effects of a non-humanoid robotic object on the way people evaluate each other, regardless of their perception of the robot. In a controlled study with 60 participants (30 pairs), the robotic object was presented as a side-participant during face-to-face conversation between two people in one of three conditions: ‘Responsive to Speaker’, ‘Responsive to Addressee’, or ‘Non-responsive’ (baseline). We analyzed participants’ perceptions of each other by measuring interpersonal evaluation, mutual liking, and number of mutual smiles. Results reveal that both responsive conditions had a positive influence on participants’ perception of each other, with a clear difference in the social role participants attributed to the robot in each condition. The two responsive conditions led to a significantly higher interpersonal evaluation of the human conversation partner, suggesting that a responsive robot can positively influence the quality of human-human interaction.

Outdoor play is in decline, including its benefits to children’s
development. Coding, a typically indoor, screen-based activity, can potentially enrich outdoor play, serving as a rulemaking medium. We present a coding platform that controls a programmable hardware device, enabling children to technologically-enhance their outdoor play experiences by inventing game ideas, coding them, and playing their games together with their friends. In the evaluation study, 24 children used the system to invent and play outdoor games. Results show children are able to bridge between the different domains of coding and outdoor play. They used the system to modify traditional games and invent new ones, enriching their outdoor experience. Children merged computational concepts with physical game elements, integrated physical outdoor properties as variables in their code, and were excited to see their code come to life. We conclude children can use coding to express their ideas by creating technologically-enhanced outdoor play experiences.

Physical movement is a dominant element in robot behavior. We evaluate if robotic movements are automatically interpreted as social cues, even if the robot has no social role.
24 participants performed the Implicit Associations Test, classifying robotic gestures into direction categories (“to-front” or “to-back”) and words into social categories (willingness or unwillingness for interaction).
Our findings show that social interpretation of the robot’s gestures is an automatic process.
The implicit social interpretation influenced both classification tasks, and could not be avoided even when it decreased.

Robotic devices for older adults are becoming a reality. New robots are being introduced for the growing subpopulation of healthy older adults, with an emphasis on supporting the positive aspects of aging. In order to
inform the design and implementation of such robots, the relevant needs and concerns of this population should
be studied, mapped, and translated into recommendations. We present a qualitative study of thirty cognitively intact older adults, evaluating their attitudes and emotional reactions towards different types of home robotic
devices. Interview analysis of participants reactions to videos of six devices uncovered four user needs that can
be threatened by the introduction of home robots: the need for independence, the need for control, the fear of
being replaced, and the need for authenticity. Furthermore, results reveal that cognitively-intact older adults are
willing to adopt robotic devices into their homes, contingent upon their preferences and concerns being addressed. We provide recommendations regarding how researchers and designers of home robots can better
address the user needs of healthy older adults by leveraging aspects of the robot's function, speech, appearance,
size, proactivity, and mobility.

Children are growing up in a Machine Learning infused world and it’s imperative to provide them with opportunities to develop an accurate understanding of basic Machine Learning concepts.
Physical gesture recognition is a typical application of Machine Learning, and physical gestures are also an integral part of children’s lives, including sports and play.
We present Scratch Nodes ML, a system enabling children to create personalized gesture recognizers by: (1) Creating their own gesture classes;

Machine Learning services are integrated into various aspects of everyday life. Their underlying processes are typically black-boxed to increase ease-of-use.
Consequently, children lack the opportunity to explore such processes and develop essential mental models.
We present a gesture recognition research platform, designed to support learning from experience by uncovering Machine Learning building blocks:
Data Labeling and Evaluation. Children used the platform to perform physical gestures, iterating between sampling and evaluation.
Their understanding was tested in a pre/post-experimental design, in three conditions: learning activity uncovering Data Labeling only, Evaluation only, or both.
Our findings show that both building blocks are imperative to enhance children’s understanding of basic Machine Learning concepts. Children were able to apply their new knowledge
to everyday life context, including personally meaningful applications. We conclude that children’s interaction with uncovered black boxes of Machine Learning contributes to a better understanding of the world around them.

Biology labs routinely conduct direct experimentation with living organisms. However, most high schools are not able to engage students in such experimentation due to multiple factors: sterility, cost of equipment, cost of skilled lab assistants, and difficulty measuring micro-scale processes. We present the design and implementation of My First Biolab (MFB), a lab in a box with a novel disposable fluidic vessel (experiment in a bag) using two sheets of Polyacrylamide-Polyethylene channeling liquids via paths created with a laser-cutter. The system implementation includes a 2D magnetic peristaltic pump, a spectral sensor, and a heat transfer plate. MFB is an affordable, safe, and sterile system for hands-on experimentation with live microorganisms. Our system supports temperature control, liquid circulation, measurement of optical density, and a web interface for remote control and monitoring.
Our first experiment demonstrates the three phases of bacterial growth: initial lag phase, the rapid-growth log phase, and the stationary phase.

The biological prototyping revolution is in motion, and new tools are needed to empower HCI researchers, designers, makers, and bio-enthusiasts to experiment with live organisms.
We present OpenLH, a liquid handling system that empowers users to conduct accurate and repetitive experiments with live biology in a sterile, open, and affordable way.
OpenLH The biological prototyping revolution is in motion, and new tools are needed to empower HCI researchers, designers, makers, and bio-enthusiasts to experiment with live organisms.
We present OpenLH, a liquid handling system that empowers users to conduct accurate and repetitive experiments with live biology in a sterile, open, and affordable way.
OpenLH integrates a commercially available robotic arm with custom 3D printed parts, a modified pipette, and a visual block-based programming interface.
The system is as accurate as commercial liquid handlers, capable of repetitive tasks in micro-scale accuracy, easy to operate, and supports multi-materials including biomaterials, microorganisms and cell cultures.
We describe the system’s technical implementation and two custom interfaces. We demonstrate the system’s impact for the HCI community with two use cases that include experimentation with live biology in non-traditional fields: visual design using pigment-expressing E.coli, and beer brewing experiment using serial dilution in home context.
integrates a commercially available robotic arm with custom 3D printed parts, a modified pipette, and a visual block-based programming interface.
The system is as accurate as commercial liquid handlers, capable of repetitive tasks in micro-scale accuracy, easy to operate, and supports multi-materials including biomaterials, microorganisms and cell cultures.
We describe the system’s technical implementation and two custom interfaces. We demonstrate the system’s impact for the HCI community with two use cases that include experimentation with live biology in non-traditional fields: visual design using pigment-expressing E.coli, and beer brewing experiment using serial dilution in home context.

Machine Learning (ML) processes are integrated into devices and services that affect many aspects of daily life. As a result, basic understanding of ML concepts becomes essential for people of all ages, including children. We studied if 10–12 years old children can understand basic ML concepts through direct experience with a digital stick-like device, in a WoZ-based experiment. To assess children’s understanding we applied an experimental design including a pretest, a gesture recognition training activity, and a posttest. The tests included validating children’s understanding of the gesture training activity, other gesture detection processes, and application to ML processes in daily scenarios. Our findings suggest that children are able to understand basic ML concepts, and can even apply them to a new context. We conclude that ML learning activities should allow children to sample their own examples and evaluate them in an iterative way, and proper feedback should be designed to gradually scaffold understanding.

Parent-child interaction during a collaborative activity can empower children if parents are able to envision their child’s mental state and regulate their behavior. However, this ability is a great challenge for many parents. We designed a simple tangible ’Awareness Object’ (AO) intended to raise parents’ awareness of the roles they can play and help them shift their focus to the interaction with their child. We present results from 12 parent-child interactions with the AO. Our qualitative analysis reveals that the AO raised parents’ awareness of their roles during the activity and led to various types of reflection by both parents and children. In addition, the AO increased children’s involvement in evaluating their parent’s role, which some parents found intriguing while others found inappropriate. We conclude that a simple tangible interface can enhance parent-child interaction. However, this interaction is sensitive and should be approached with caution.

Outdoor play has known benefits for children’s development, and studies show it is in decline. Heads-Up Games have been proposed as a possible solution, in some cases with an integrated coding platform to enrich play variety. In this pilot study we set out to evaluate a Scratch-based coding platform for outdoor play. The code primitives control digital features of a stick-like outdoor play object. We observed children’s play patterns with the coding platform and with the play object, and report on three distinct patterns: “Basic Exploration”, “Advanced Exploration”, and “Game Invention”. Our preliminary findings show that all children began with “Basic Exploration” and progressed either to “Advanced Exploration” or “Game Invention”. With regards to outdoor play benefits, the “Game Invention” pattern was associated with more collaborative social interaction, physical activity, and “heads up” interaction. We discuss the implications for future coding platforms designed for outdoor play.

Opening encounters are an integral element of everyday social interaction, and are essential for forming and maintaining social relationships between people. We present an abstract non-humanoid robotic object called the Greeting Machine, designed to communicate positive and negative social cues in the context of opening encounters. The design includes a small ball rolling on a larger dome, with a custom gear and lever mechanism that supports a variety of subtle movements. Gestures were designed with movement experts, and were evaluated using a physical first-person qualitative study. Our findings reveal that an abstract robot designed with no specific metaphor can effectively take part in opening encounters. Furthermore, a minimal brief movement, designed as an Approach or Avoid gesture, may be enough to evoke positive and negative experiences. The ability to create opening encounters with low Degree of Freedom abstract robots is promising, both due to the low complexity, low cost, and design flexibility of such devices, and due to the possible generalization of the Approach and Avoid gestures for a variety of morphologies.

Outdoor play has been proven to be beneficial for children’s development. HCI research on Heads-Up Games suggests that the well-known decline in outdoor play can be addressed by adding technology to such activities. However, outdoor play benefits such as social interaction, creative thinking, and physical activity may be compromised when digital features are added. We present the design & implementation of a novel digitally-enhanced outdoor-play prototype. Our evaluation with 48 children revealed that a non-digital version of the novel outdoor play object afforded social play and game invention. Evaluation of the digitally-enhanced version showed reduced collaborative social interaction and reduced creative thinking when compared with baseline. However, we showed that specific sensing and feedback features better supported outdoor play benefits.

We present the initial design process of Scratch Nodes, a sensor-based prototype designed to augment children’s social-physical outdoor play. Scratch Nodes has two main components: a hardware device and a tablet-based coding environment. The prototype was designed for 8-12 year old children with the goal of encouraging physical play, social interaction, and “changing the rules” through coding. We extend prior work in the Heads-up Games (HUG) domain by adding a real-time coding environment that directly controls the hardware device, empowering children to change the game’s rules in real-time. We argue that the combination of physical play, social interaction, and coding strikes the right balance between the societal need to increase outdoor play & enhance computational thinking skills on one hand and children’s need to play, measure, and define their own rules.

Shape-changing materials development strives to generate motion in new ways, extending the traditional motor-based and mechanism-based techniques. We present a system that uses continuous magnetic force to create movement in a range of soft materials such as textile, foam, paper or silicon. The system has two parts: a control platform and a multi-material layer. The control platform is an array of electromagnets controlled by a microcontroller. The multi-material layer is made of a soft material with embedded ferromagnetic elements. The subtle electromagnetic force manipulates the embedded ferromagnetic material, resulting in continuous and organic-like movement in the material layer. We hope our system can empower designers to generate expressive movement with a broad range of materials. In our own work, we aim to extend our Empathy Objects research with soft materials, creating physical objects that convey emotion through expressive movement.

Designing and authoring gestures for socially expressive robots has been an increasingly important problem in recent years. In this demo we present a new pipeline that enables animators to create gestures for robots in a 3D animation authoring environment, without knowledge in computer programming. The pipeline consists of an exporter for a 3D animation software and an interpreter running on a System-on-Module translating the exported animation into motor control commands.

This paper presents CataKit, a construction kit for children inspired by catapults, Rube-Goldberg chain reaction machines, and mechanical automata. We set out to promote children‘s initiative, positive risk-taking, and procedural thinking, all in the context of their bedrooms. Our motivation is to contrast the rising smart home movement in industry, which we fear may decrease children‘s initiative if children‘s bedrooms become too automated. We describe our design research process with six children followed by a prototype implementation and evaluation. We present the qualitative analysis of children‘s reactions and experiences with the prototype and show. that playing with CataKit encouraged children‘s systematic exploration of mechanical concepts, initiative, and positive risk-taking. We hope that construction kits like Catakit will empower kids to develop curiosity about the mechanical world around them, to think about risk taking as a potentially positive experience, and to think more critically about initiative in the smart home era.

With domestic technology on the rise, the quantity and complexity of smart-home devices are becoming an important interaction design challenge. We present a novel design for a home control interface in the form of a social robot, commanded via tangible icons and giving feedback through expressive gestures. We experimentally compare the robot to three common smart-home interfaces: a voice-control loudspeaker; a wall mounted touch-screen; and a mobile application. Our findings suggest that interfaces that rate higher on flow rate lower on usability, and vice versa. Participants’ sense of control is highest using familiar interfaces, and lowest using voice control. Situation awareness is highest using the robot, and also lowest using voice control. These findings raise questions about voice control as a smart-home interface, and suggest that embodied social robots could provide for an engaging interface with high situation awareness, but also that their usability remains a considerable design challenge.

Making activities for children often take place at informal learning environments. In this context parents may join their children for co-making activity. It has been shown that this type of activity can be facilitated by educators that serve as mentors. In this paper we aim to explore parent-child interaction in the context of a co-making שctivity at home. Towards that end, we developed a dedicated kit that couples Automata-building with paper circuits. We also designed five activity cards as scaffolding for parents, to raise their awareness to mentoring principles. We present our design process, evaluation, and findings from eight parent-child co-making activities

We present the design process of Scratch Nodes, a sensor based prototype designed to enable kids to augment physical outdoor play in a creative and meaningful way. Scratch Nodes was designed for 8-12 years old kids with the goal of encouraging physical play with special emphasis on social interaction and coding. Our contribution is a new prototype that extends prior work by combining three design principles: outdoor play focused on Heads-up Games (HUG), co-located social interaction, and changing the rules through coding. We argue that the combination of these three principles strikes the right balance between kids intrinsic motivation (play & measure, collaborate & compete, define their own rules) and contemporary social/cultural needs (decrease screen time, increase physical activity, increase creative/systematic exploration). We present our iterative design & implementation process and insights generated from qualitative analysis of an evaluation with 20 kids who tested the prototype at various stages.

The design of tangible and embedded assistive technologies poses unique challenges. We describe the challenges we encountered during the design of “DataSpoon”, explain how we overcame them, and suggest design guidelines. DataSpoon is an instrumented spoon that monitors movement kinematics during self-feeding. Children with motor disorders often encounter difficulty mastering self-feeding. In order to treat them effectively, professional caregivers need to assess their movement kinematics. Currently, assessment is performed through observations and questionnaires. DataSpoon adds sensor-based data to this process. A validation study showed that data obtained from DataSpoon and from a 6-camera 3D motion capture system were similar. Our experience yielded three design guidelines: needs of both caregivers and children should be considered; distractions to direct caregiver-child interaction should be minimized; familiar-looking devices may alleviate concerns associated with unfamiliar technology

We describe the design process of “Vyo”, a personal assistant serving as a centralized interface for smart home devices. Building on the concepts of ubiquitous and engaging computing in the domestic environment, we identified five design goals for the home robot: engaging, unobtrusive, device-like, respectful, and reassuring. These goals led our design process, which included simultaneous iterative development of the robot’s morphology, nonverbal behavior and interaction schemas. We continued with user-centered design research using puppet prototypes of the robot to assess and refine our design choices. The resulting robot, Vyo, straddles the boundary between a monitoring device and a socially expressive agent, and presents a number of novel design outcomes: The combination of TUI “phicons” with social robotics; gesture related screen exposure; and a non-anthropomorphic monocular expressive face. We discuss how our design goals are expressed in the elements of the robot’s final design.

We present the design and initial evaluation of Kip3, a social robotic device for students with ADHD that provides immediate feedback for inattention or impulsivity events. We designed a research platform comprised of a tablet-based Continuous Performance Test (CPT) that is used to assess inattention and impulsivity, and a socially expressive robotic device (Kip3) as feedback. We evaluated our platform with 10 students with ADHD in a within subject user study, and report that 9 out of 10 participants felt that Kip3 helped them regain focus, but wondered if it will be effective over time and how it will identify inattention in more complex situations outside the lab.

Makerspaces of various models are forming all around the world. We present a model and case study of the Maketec, a public drop-in makerspace for children, run by teens. The Maketec model is designed to promote making and socializing opportunities for girls and boys of ages 9-14. It is based on three underlying principles: (1) “Low Floor/Wide Walls”: construction kits and digital fabrication technologies that allow kids to invent and create with no prior knowledge or expertise; (2) “Unstructured Learning”: no formal instructors, teens serve as mentors for kids, and promote a culture of self-driven learning through projects; and (3) “A Makerspace as a Third Place”: the Maketec is free and managed by kids for kids in an effort to form a unique community of young makers. We report on interviews with four recurring visitors, and discuss our insights around the three principles and the proposed model.

We study the experiences of high school student volunteers as mentors in a public makerspace for children. Based on interviews, we present the teenagers’ varied backgrounds, doubts, and lessons learned. While most studies around maker activities have focused on learning of STEM subject matter, our findings point to an additional outcome, an empowerment in social competence. We discuss our insights about teenage mentorship in makerspaces and propose future research directions.

Many children with cerebral palsy (CP) encounter great difficulties mastering self-feeding. We set out to assess the self-feeding skills of young children with CP via a novel instrumented spoon that monitors upper extremity biomechanics involved in eating. We describe the initial stages of an iterative design process, consisting of a focus group with domain experts, and rapid-prototyping. We discuss the physical, assessment and safety requirements for the spoon. In addition, we explain the potential of tangible interfaces to provide professional caregivers with valuable information regarding each child.

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a peripheral empathy-evoking robotic conversation companion, Kip1. The robot’s function is to increase people’s awareness to the effect of their behavior towards others, potentially leading to behavior change. Specifically, Kip1 is designed to promote nonaggressive conversation between people. It monitors the conversation’s nonverbal aspects and maintains an emotional model of its reaction to the conversation. If the conversation seems calm, Kip1 responds by a gesture designed to communicate curious interest. If the conversation seems aggressive, Kip1 responds by a gesture designed to communicate fear. We describe the design process of Kip1, guided by the principles of peripheral and evocative. We detail its hardware and software systems, and a study evaluating the effects of the robot’s autonomous behavior on couples’ conversations. We find support for our design goals. A conversation companion reacting to the conversation led to more gaze attention, but not more verbal distraction, compared to a robot that moves but does not react to the conversation. This suggests that robotic devices could be designed as companions to human-human interaction without compromising the natural communication flow between people. Participants also rated the reacting robot as having significantly more social human character traits and as being significantly more similar to them. This points to the robot’s potential to elicit people’s empathy.

Gamification of fitness applications opens the door to cheating by exploiting inherent limitations of sensing, in order to advance in the game without performing the required physical activity. While this type of behavior is usually conceptualized negatively, we propose it could actually be beneficial for encouraging physical activity. We integrate prior work on cheating in online games with prior work on embracing non-normative behavior, and suggest design opportunities for embracing cheating in gamified fitness applications.

We present the notion of Empathy Objects, ambient robotic devices accompanying human-human interaction. Empathy Objects respond to human behavior using physical gestures as nonverbal expressions of their “emotional states”. The goal is to increase people’s self-awareness to the emotional state of others, leading to behavior change. We demonstrate an Empathy Object prototype, Kip1, a conversation companion designed to promote non-aggressive conversation between people

Children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) experience a deficit in cognitive processes responsible for goal-directed behaviors, known as executive functioning (EF). In an effort to assist them, we developed TangiPlan – a prototype of a tangible assistive technology intended to improve EF during morning routines. TangiPlan was designed based on the following guidelines: implement intervention techniques recommended by experts; reduce conflicts with caregivers; avoid intrusion; support flexibility and autonomy. These design guidelines were implemented in a prototype consisting of six tangible objects, each representing a task that needs to be completed during a child’s morning routine, and a tablet application for planning tasks and matching them with objects. An initial evaluation of the prototype with two case studies resulted in improved organization and time management, increased satisfaction, and fewer conflicts with parents during morning routines.

College students in the social sciences are required to learn quantitative research methods and statistics. Unfortunately, many fail to see the relevance of these courses, and are often anxious about them. In an effort to increase students’ engagement in the research process, we developed Ruzo – a mobile scientific inquiry platform. Ruzo enables instructors and students to create research projects as custom mobile apps, collect data on the go, and visualize the data using a web-based interactive tool. Ruzo was designed based on five guidelines, derived from interviews with domain experts: guide students through all stages of research; reduce anxiousness; encourage active learning; connect to students’ everyday lives; and adapt the system to the needs of the instructor. A user study showed that Ruzo was easy to use, and students expressed interest in research, thereby demonstrating the potential of mobile technology to scaffold scientific inquiry

We present Objects for Change (OFC), a set of design considerations based on established behavior change techniques that can serve designers of Tangible User Interfaces (TUI). We highlight empirical findings from behavior change literature, and show how to apply them to inherent TUI properties: (1) visibility and persistency, (2) locality, (3) tangible representation, and (4) affordances. We demonstrate how we applied OFC in the design of a TUI prototype aimed to promote behavior change in planning and organization tasks among youth diagnosed with ADHD.

Game design elements are often implemented in persuasive systems aimed to promote physical activity, a process called ‘‘gamification.’’ Gamification is believed to motivate users to become more active, and is commonly implemented in commercial products. However, relatively few studies rigorously evaluated the effectiveness of gamification, and they yielded contradicting findings. We set out to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual rewards and social comparison—two game elements prevalent in persuasive systems. We developed a research prototype, called ‘‘StepByStep,’’ aimed to promote routine walking. We created different versions of StepByStep, implemented as an application on Android-based mobile devices, and compared their effectiveness in two field studies. Study 1 showed that a quantified version of the application— offering continuous measurement of walking time, a daily goal, and real-time feedback on progress toward this goal—facilitated reflection on activity and significantly increased walking time over baseline level. Study 2 showed that gamified versions offering virtual rewards and social comparison were only as effective as the quantified version. Thus, we advise designers to facilitate reflection on meaningful aspects of physical activity by developing novel ubiquitous measures. Furthermore, our findings highlight the importance of systematic comparisons between quantified and gamified elements for better understanding their motivational affordances.

Typically developing children usually master self-feeding by the age of three years. However, children with Cerebral Palsy and other developmental disabilities encounter great difficulties acquiring this instrumental ability. In an effort to motivate young eaters in the process of acquiring self-feeding abilities, we set out to develop ExciteTray – a customized self-feeding assistive technology. We describe the initial stages of an iterative design process consisting of interviews with domain experts, rapidprototyping, and evaluations with children. Based on our findings, we formulated preliminary design principles for a self-feeding assistive technology: draw attention without causing distraction; motivate the child during the various stages of self-feeding; facilitate face-to-face interaction between caregiver and child; adapt feedback to the cognitive and motor ability of each child. We explain how these principles were implemented in a prototype, discuss safety considerations and describe future work.

Long car rides can become a source of boredom for children, consequently causing tension inside the car. Common solutions against boredom include entertainment devices suitable for in-car use. Such devices often disengage children from other family members inside the car, as well as from the outside world. We set out to create a novel in-car game that connects children with their family and their environment, instead of only their entertainment devices. The game, called Mileys, integrates locationbased information, augmented reality and virtual characters. We developed Mileys in an iterative process — findings from the first round of prototyping and evaluation guided the design of a second-generation prototype and lead to additional evaluations. In this paper we discuss lessons learned during the development and evaluation of Mileys, present challenges for location-based in-car game design, and suggest potential solutions for promoting interactions inside and outside the car.

Purposeful goal-directed behaviors, known as executive functioning (EF). In an effort to improve EF, we are developing TangiPlan – a set of tangible connected objects that represent tasks children perform during their morning routine. We describe the initial stages of a user-centered design process, consisting of interviews with both domain experts and potential users, followed by paper prototyping. Based on our findings, we formulated preliminary design principles for EF assistive technology: facilitate organization, time management and planning; involve caregivers in the process, but strive to reduce conflict; implement intervention techniques suggested by experts; avoid distraction by mobile phones; avoid intrusion. We discuss the benefits of implementing these principles with a tangible interface, present our prototype design, and describe future directions

The digital world, and the Internet in particular, have a significant impact on almost all aspects of our lives. The realm of psychotherapy is an area in which the influence of the Internet is growing rapidly. This paper suggests a model for comprehensive online therapy online with a therapist at its center. We start by explaining the main components of both traditional therapy and online therapy. We discuss the principal criticisms leveled against online therapy and assess the efficacy of various responses. The paper moves on to explain the advantages of online therapy, focusing on the unique aspects of this approach. The paper proposes that online therapy should exploit other online resources, including online techniques for information gathering. This is true both in the therapeutic session and outside of it. In addition, the paper suggests that therapists incorporate online role play, online CBT and intervention techniques using the smartphone. All of these tools are suggested as important components in a process of comprehensive therapy run by a therapist working online.

Family car rides can become a source of boredom for child passengers, and consequently cause tension inside the car. In an attempt to overcome this problem, we developed Mileys – a novel in-car game that integrates location-based information, augmented reality and virtual characters. It is aimed to make car rides more interesting for child passengers, strengthen the bond between family members, encourage safe and ecological driving, and connect children with their environment instead of their entertainment devices. We evaluated Mileys with a six-week long field study, which revealed differences between children and parents regarding their desired in-car experience. Children wish to play enjoyable games, whereas parents view car rides as an opportunity for strengthening the bond between family members and for educating their children. Based on our findings, we identify five key challenges for in-car game design for children:

Tangible user interfaces (TUIs) are often compared to graphical user interfaces (GUIs). However, the existing literature is unable to demonstrate clear advantages for either interface, as empirical studies yielded different findings, sometimes even contradicting ones. The current study set out to conduct an in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of both interfaces, based on a comparison between similar TUI and GUI versions of a modeling and simulation system called “FlowBlocks”. Results showed most users preferred the TUI version over the GUI version. This is a surprising finding, considering both versions were equivalent in regard to most performance parameters, and the TUI version was even perceived as inferior to the GUI version in regard to usability. Interviews with users revealed this preference stemmed from high levels of stimulation and enjoyment, derived from three TUI properties: physical interaction, rich feedback, and high levels of realism. Potential underlying mechanisms for these findings and practical implications are discussed.