Enhancing Human Robot Interaction Through Social Network Interfaces: A Case Study

  • Laura Fiorini
  • Raffaele Limosani
  • Raffaele Esposito
  • Alessandro Manzi
  • Alessandra Moschetti
  • Manuele Bonaccorsi
  • Filippo Cavallo
  • Paolo Dario
Conference paper
First Online:
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 9170)

Abstract

Recently we have assisted to the rise of different Social Networks, and to the growth of robots for home applications, which represent the second big market opportunity. The use and the integration of robotics services in our daily life is strictly correlated with their usability and their acceptability. Particularly, their ease of use, among other issues, is linked to the simplicity of the interface the user has to interact with. In this sense social networks could enrich and simplify the communication between the user and technology avoiding the multiplication of custom interfaces. In this work the authors propose a system to enHancE human RobOt Interaction through common Social networks (HeROIS). HeROIS system combines the use of cloud resources, service robot and smart environments proposing three different services to help citizens in daily life. In order to assess the acceptability and the usability levels, HeROIS system and services have been tested with 13 real users (24–37 years old) in the DomoCasa Lab (Italy). As regards the usability, the results show that the proposed system is usable for 4 participants (30.77 % M = 79.69 SD = 3.13) and excellent for 9 participants (69.23 % M = 90.05 SD = 3.72). Concerning the acceptability level, the results show that the proposed system is acceptable for 8 volunteers (61.54 % M = 77.02 SD = 4.23) and excellent for 5 participants (38.46 % M = 89.71 SD = 6.06).

Keywords

Service robots Social network Cloud robotics Acceptability 
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Notes

Acknowledgment

This work was supported in part by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 288899 (Robot-Era Project). This work was also supported in part by Telecom Italia, Joint Open Lab WHITE, Pisa, Italy and OmniaRoboCare project - Programma Operativo Regionale CReO Fesr 2007–2013, Linea di intervento 1.5.a – 1.6, Bando unico R&S anno 2012.

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Laura Fiorini
    • 1
  • Raffaele Limosani
    • 1
  • Raffaele Esposito
    • 1
  • Alessandro Manzi
    • 1
  • Alessandra Moschetti
    • 1
  • Manuele Bonaccorsi
    • 1
  • Filippo Cavallo
    • 1
  • Paolo Dario
    • 1
  1. 1.The BioRobotics InstituteScuola Superiore Sant’AnnaPisaItaly

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