Vanessa Evers

Personal robots and screen agents can be equipped with social abilities to facilitate interaction. This paper describes our research on the influence of these abilities on elderly user's acceptance of such a system. Experiments were set up in eldercare institutions where a robotic and screen agent with simulated conversational capabilities were used in a Wizard of Oz experiment. Both agents were used with two conditions: a more socially communicative (the agent made use of a larger set of social abilities in interaction) and a less socially communicative interface. Results show that participants who were confronted with the more socially communicative version of the robotic agent felt more comfortable and were more expressive in communicating with it. This suggests that the more socially communicative condition would be more likely to be accepted as a conversational partner. This effect was less strong however, with the screen agent, suggesting that embodiment plays a role in this. Furthermore, results did show a correlation between social abilities as perceived by participants and some aspects of technology acceptance for both systems, but this did not relate to the more and less socially communicative conditions. Evaluating the experiments and specifically the use of our acceptance model we suggest that this particular context of robotic and screen agents for elderly users requires the development of a more appropriate acceptance model which not only features technology acceptance, but also conversational acceptance.

While expressiveness in human communication is a natural and widely observed phenomenon, in studies of humans interacting with robots and screen agents it is relatively unexplored. If it occurs however, this could mean that the artificial personality is accepted as a conversation partner by the user. An experiment with a robot and a screen agent in an eldercare institution both in a more and less expressive condition shows that it occurs: participants showed indeed more expressiveness with a more expressive robot or agent. The effect seemed to be stronger for the robot. Although the robot differed in more ways from the agent, this could be an indication of agent embodiment being a moderating factor.

This study examines the influence of perceived social abilities of a robot on user's attitude towards and acceptance of the robot. An interface robot with simulated conversational capabilities was used in a Wizard of Oz experiment with two conditions: a more socially communicative (the robot made use of a larger set of social abilities in interaction) and a less socially communicative interface. Participants (n=40) were observed in 5 minute interaction sessions and were asked to answer questions on perceived social abilities and technology acceptance. Results show that participants who were confronted with the more socially communicative version of the robot felt more comfortable and were more expressive in communicating with it. This suggests that the more socially communicative condition would be more likely to be accepted as a conversational partner. However, the findings did not show a significant correlation between perceived social abilities and technology acceptance