Atikkhan Faridkhan Nilgar, Manuel Dietrich, Kristof Van Laerhoven
Robots in shared settings may expose information intended for an individual user to nearby bystanders. Robot tutoring makes this concern particularly salient: critical feedback is directed at an individual learner, yet bystanders may overhear or see it. To address this, we compared context-invariant and context-adaptive robot behaviors in a between-subjects study with 40 participants. Following an initial phase without a bystander, a bystander entered the setting. Participants then received two scripted critical feedback messages concerning their pronunciation and handwriting, independent of their actual performance. With the context-invariant behavior, the robot tutor delivered both messages aloud. With the context-adaptive behavior, the robot tutor scanned for the bystander, turned its body and display away after detecting them, gave a spoken attention cue, and presented the same feedback messages silently on its display. Participants rated the robot tutor higher in perceived privacy awareness and perceived social competence in the context-adaptive condition than in the context-invariant condition, while evidence for reduced experienced embarrassment was inconclusive. These findings inform the design and evaluation of robots that respond to bystander presence by adapting how they communicate potentially sensitive information.
Atikkhan Faridkhan Nilgar, Manuel Dietrich, Kristof Van Laerhoven
In shared settings, social robots may need to exchange information with an individual while limiting co-present others' access to or interpretation of that information. Publicly observable speech and gestures may not adequately support such exchanges. We investigate a wearable-mediated channel for discreet interaction that combines in-ear audio messages with deliberate rightward head tilts as responses. To examine its feasibility and participants' experiences, we studied 20 pairs (40 participants) playing a card game with a screen-based conversational agent representing a social robot, controlled by a researcher in a Wizard-of-Oz setup. Each pair played with and without the channel. One participant wore the device (the wearer), while the other (the non-wearer) was informed about the channel after gameplay. The channel conveyed information that could help the wearer or robot character select an opponent they could defeat. The information exchange and subsequent opponent selection occurred as intended in 39 of 40 channel-mediated turns. Wearers reported low perceived pressure/tension in both conditions, with no statistically significant difference between conditions, and favorable usability immediately after use. Retrospective interviews, however, revealed varied accounts of noticing the interaction among non-wearers and contrasting perceptions of teamwork and unfairness. These findings support the feasibility of wearable-mediated exchanges within this game and identify awareness and fairness as considerations for future designs.