research-article

Huggable: The Impact of Embodiment on Promoting Socio-emotional Interactions for Young Pediatric Inpatients

Authors:

Cynthia Breazeal,

Peter WeinstockAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Paper No.: 495, Pages 1 - 13

https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174069

Published: 21 April 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Most hospitals make efforts to provide socio-emotional support for patients and their families during care. In order to expand the service provided by certified child life specialists, we created a social robot and a virtual avatar that augment part of the care CCLS offers to patients by engaging pediatric patients in playful interactions and promoting their socio-emotional wellbeing. We ran a randomized controlled trial in a form of a Wizard-of-Oz study at a local pediatric hospital to study how three different interactive media (a plush teddy bear, a virtual agent on a screen, and a social robot) influence the pediatric patient's affect, joyful play, and social interactions with others. Behavioral analyses of verbal utterance transcriptions and children's physical behavior revealed that the social robot is most effective in producing socially energetic conversations as well as increasing positivity and promoting multi-party interactions. The virtual avatar was socially engaging but children tended to attend more exclusively to a virtual avatar and were less responsive to others. The plush toy was least engaging of the three interventions, but children touched it the most. Based on these findings, we recommend use cases for each agent appropriate for individual pediatric patients' health conditions and needs. These analyses of behavioral data suggest the benefit of deploying a physically embodied social robot in pediatric inpatient-care contexts on young patients'; social and emotional wellbeing.

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MacDonald SFreeman EPollick FBrewster S(2024)Prototyping and Evaluation of Emotionally Resonant Vibrotactile Comfort Objects as a Calming Social Anxiety InterventionACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/364861531:4(1-48)Online publication date: 19-Sep-2024
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Yi EPark D(2024)Potential User Segmentation Based on Expectations of Social Robots Using Q-MethodologyIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2024.343086412(100295-100315)Online publication date: 2024
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Index Terms

Huggable: The Impact of Embodiment on Promoting Socio-emotional Interactions for Young Pediatric Inpatients
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2018

8489 pages

ISBN:9781450356206

DOI:10.1145/3173574

General Chairs:
Regan Mandryk
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
,
Mark Hancock
University of Waterloo, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Mark Perry
Brunel University London, UK
,
Anna Cox
University College London, UK

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Published: 21 April 2018

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CHI '18 Paper Acceptance Rate 666 of 2,590 submissions, 26%;

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3654777.3676346
MacDonald SFreeman EPollick FBrewster S(2024)Prototyping and Evaluation of Emotionally Resonant Vibrotactile Comfort Objects as a Calming Social Anxiety InterventionACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/364861531:4(1-48)Online publication date: 19-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3648615
Yi EPark D(2024)Potential User Segmentation Based on Expectations of Social Robots Using Q-MethodologyIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2024.343086412(100295-100315)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3430864
Purps CHettmann WZylowski TSautchuk-Patrício NHepperle DWölfel M(2024)Exploring Perception and Preference in Public Human-Agent Interaction: Virtual Human Vs. Social RobotArtsIT, Interactivity and Game Creation10.1007/978-3-031-55312-7_25(342-358)Online publication date: 21-Mar-2024
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Reynolds-Cuéllar PSalazar-Gómez ACastellano GRiek LCakmak MLeite I(2023)Nature-Robot InteractionCompanion of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction10.1145/3568294.3580034(30-39)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2023
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Kryklywy JVyas PMaclean KTodd R(2023)Characterizing affiliative touch in humans and its role in advancing haptic designAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences10.1111/nyas.150561528:1(29-41)Online publication date: 19-Aug-2023
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