From Agent Autonomy to Casual Collaboration: A Design Investigation on Help-Seeking Urban Robots

As intelligent agents transition from controlled to uncontrolled environments, they face challenges that sometimes exceed their operational capabilities. In many scenarios, they rely on assistance from bystanders to overcome those challenges. Using robots that get stuck in urban settings as an example, we investigate how agents can prompt bystanders into providing assistance. We conducted four focus group sessions with 17 participants that involved bodystorming, where participants assumed the role of robots and bystander pedestrians in role-playing activities. Generating insights from both assumed robot and bystander perspectives, we were able to identify potential non-verbal help-seeking strategies (i.e., addressing bystanders, cueing intentions, and displaying emotions) and factors shaping the assistive behaviours of bystanders. Drawing on these findings, we offer design considerations for help-seeking urban robots and other agents operating in uncontrolled environments to foster casual collaboration, encompass expressiveness, align with agent social categories, and curate appropriate incentives

Scoping Out the Scalability Issues of Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) may use external interfaces, such as LED light bands, to communicate with pedestrians safely and intuitively. While previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of these interfaces in simple traffic scenarios involving one pedestrian and one vehicle, their performance in more complex scenarios with multiple road users remains unclear. The scalability of AV external communication has therefore attracted increasing attention, prompting the need for further investigation. This scoping review synthesises information from 54 papers to identify seven key scalability issues in multi-vehicle and multi-pedestrian environments, with Clarity of Recipients, Information Overload, and Multi-Lane Safety emerging as the most pressing concerns. To guide future research in scalable AV-pedestrian interactions, we propose high-level design directions focused on three communication loci: vehicle, infrastructure, and pedestrian. Our work contributes the groundwork and a roadmap for designing simplified, coordinated, and targeted external AV communication, ultimately improving safety and efficiency in complex traffic scenarios

Designing Interactions with Autonomous Physical Systems

In this position paper, we present a collection of four different prototyping approaches which we have developed and applied to prototype and evaluate interfaces for and interactions around autonomous physical systems. Further, we provide a classification of our approaches aiming to support other researchers and designers in choosing appropriate prototyping platforms and representations

A Model of the Deviation between the Intended and the Actual Experiences with Interactive Installations

Interactive installations engage people in different ways, many of which are different than originally intended by the designer. We present a model that illustrates the differences between the intended experience and the actual experience of people. The model is demonstrated through the analysis of one interactive installation at the Science Museum (London) and the various parameters are mapped and visualized. We suggest that the participants of interactive installations engage differently than originally intended by the designer, which can be defined here as "deviation". There are several levels of deviation, and the proposed model will illustrate the critical interaction stages and visualize the deviations. This model offers new tools for designers and curators alike

Designing Wearable Augmented Reality Concepts to Support Scalability in Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction

Wearable augmented reality (AR) offers new ways for supporting the interaction between autonomous vehicles (AVs) and pedestrians due to its ability to integrate timely and contextually relevant data into the user's field of view. This article presents novel wearable AR concepts that assist crossing pedestrians in multi-vehicle scenarios where several AVs frequent the road from both directions. Three concepts with different communication approaches for signaling responses from multiple AVs to a crossing request, as well as a conventional pedestrian push button, were simulated and tested within a virtual reality environment. The results showed that wearable AR is a promising way to reduce crossing pedestrians' cognitive load when the design offers both individual AV responses and a clear signal to cross. The willingness of pedestrians to adopt a wearable AR solution, however, is subject to different factors, including costs, data privacy, technical defects, liability risks, maintenance duties, and form factors. We further found that all participants favored sending a crossing request to AVs rather than waiting for the vehicles to detect their intentions-pointing to an important gap and opportunity in the current AV-pedestrian interaction literature

Eliciting New Perspectives in RtD Studies through Annotated Portfolios: A Case Study of Robotic Artefacts

In this paper, we investigate how to elicit new perspectives in research-through-design (RtD) studies through annotated portfolios. Situating the usage in human-robot interaction (HRI), we used two robotic artefacts as a case study: we first created our own annotated portfolio and subsequently ran online workshops during which we asked HRI experts to annotate our robotic artefacts. We report on the different aspects revealed about the value, use, and further improvements of the robotic artefacts through using the annotated portfolio technique ourselves versus using it with experts. We suggest that annotated portfolios - when performed by external experts - allow design researchers to obtain a form of creative and generative peer critique. Our paper offers methodological considerations for conducting expert annotation sessions. Further, we discuss the use of annotated portfolios to unveil designerly HRI knowledge in RtD studies

Designing for Projection-based Communication between Autonomous Vehicles and Pedestrians

Recent studies have investigated new approaches for communicating an autonomous vehicle's (AV) intent and awareness to pedestrians. This paper adds to this body of work by presenting the design and evaluation of in-situ projections on the road. Our design combines common traffic light patterns with aesthetic visual elements. We describe the iterative design process and the prototyping methods used in each stage. The final design concept was represented as a virtual reality simulation and evaluated with 18 participants in four different street crossing scenarios, which included three scenarios that simulated various degrees of system errors. We found that different design elements were able to support participants' confidence in their decision even when the AV failed to correctly detect their presence. We also identified elements in our design that needed to be more clearly communicated. Based on these findings, the paper presents a series of design recommendations for projection-based communication between AVs and pedestrians

Classification of personal exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) for epidemiological research : evaluation of different exposure assessment methods

The use of personal exposure meters (exposimeters) has been recommended for measuring personal exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from environmental far-field sources in everyday life. However, it is unclear to what extent exposimeter readings are affected by measurements taken when personal mobile and cordless phones are used. In addition, the use of exposimeters in large epidemiological studies is limited due to high costs and large effort for study participants. In the current analysis we aimed to investigate the impact of personal phone use on exposimeter readings and to evaluate different exposure assessment methods potentially useful in epidemiological studies. We collected personal exposimeter measurements during one week and diary data from 166 study participants. Moreover, we collected spot measurements in the participants' bedrooms and data on self-estimated exposure, assessed residential exposure to fixed site transmitters by calculating the geo-coded distance and mean RF-EMF from a geospatial propagation model, and developed an exposure prediction model based on the propagation model and exposure relevant behavior. The mean personal exposure was 0.13mW/m(2), when measurements during personal phone calls were excluded and 0.15mW/m(2), when such measurements were included. The Spearman correlation with personal exposure (without personal phone calls) was 0.42 (95%-CI: 0.29 to 0.55) for the spot measurements, -0.03 (95%-CI: -0.18 to 0.12) for the geo-coded distance, 0.28 (95%-CI: 0.14 to 0.42) for the geospatial propagation model, 0.50 (95%-CI: 0.37 to 0.61) for the full exposure prediction model and 0.06 (95%-CI: -0.10 to 0.21) for self-estimated exposure. In conclusion, personal exposure measured with exposimeters correlated best with the full exposure prediction model and spot measurements. Self-estimated exposure and geo-coded distance turned out to be poor surrogates for personal exposure

Virtual Urban Field Studies: Evaluating Urban Interaction Design Using Context-Based Interface Prototypes

In this study, we propose the use of virtual urban field studies (VUFS) through context-based interface prototypes for evaluating the interaction design of auditory interfaces. Virtual field tests use mixed-reality technologies to combine the fidelity of real-world testing with the affordability and speed of testing in the lab. In this paper, we apply this concept to rapidly test sound designs for autonomous vehicle (AV)--pedestrian interaction with a high degree of realism and fidelity. We also propose the use of psychometrically validated measures of presence in validating the verisimilitude of VUFS. Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, we analysed users' perceptions of presence in our VUFS prototype and the relationship to our prototype's effectiveness. We also examined the use of higher-order ambisonic spatialised audio and its impact on presence. Our results provide insights into how VUFS can be designed to facilitate presence as well as design guidelines for how this can be leveraged