Part 2 – Association of Waving Stick

In the beginning of interview, subjects could only tell about their feeling of the waving stick, obviously, the waving stick is the strongest social attributes to them, but during the card sorting assessment, they can told more things about the other two features. Here we are going to introduce how they sort these cards and what is the association of feature that impressed them most.

Figure 5. 1 Card sorting: photographic images use to help subjects tell their opinion and thought.

Row 1, Pearl, Sony Aibo, C3PO, Sony Qrio, Robotic insect; Row 2, Tsmuk, Pyxis, Nec PaPeRo, Apple Imac.

Subject 2-C

Powerful in function (complexity) Weak in functions

User’s definition: “Domestic Robot” “Solance & Entertainment”

Figure 5. 2 Subject 2-C’s sorting, She assigned Pyxis and PaPeRo as our prototype like.

According to the complexity of machines, subject 2-C sorted the more complex in mechanical component to be powerful such as domestic robot, and she sorted the more entertainment to be weak in functions. Thus, although the Qrio is complex too and as a humanoid robot, it looks much cuter than others and is taken as less in functions. “It can only say hello for welcome people”, said the subject.

First, she thought the waving stick as a happy dog waving its tail excitingly and it is cute. Second, Pyxis looks like a contemporary vending machine, so does our prototype. She chose PaPeRo because of the cute form and its eyes, it seems that it can solace people, she recalled the feeling when the outlet door opened and slit plate was lifted out, she felt like something stared at her from the outlet. “I felt it was telling me what to do next, so the whole procedure let me felt comfortable and satisfied”, she said. So our prototype is like a contemporary vending machine but capable of entertaining and solacing people.

Subject 2-D

Powerful in function (complexity, affection) Weak in functions

User’s definition: “conplex, friendly, cute ” “Dead &cold machine”

Figure 5. 3 Subject 2-D’s sorting, She assigned Qrio as our prototype like.

In subject 2-D’s opinion, the Robotic insect was considered as the powerful one in function because of its most complex mechanical components. Tsmuk and Qrio seem to have arms to do lots of things than PaPeRo

and Pearl. Imac is merely a computer. Humanoid robots look like they can talk to people while Imac does not.

C3PO looks too stiff and cold. Aibo is a fake dog (though it was true), so she does not like it. It is obvious that she sorted these cards mainly because of the complexity, and then accord to the friendly form. Differing from others, Subject 2-E thought the waving stick as a waving hand but also with excitement for welcome people.

Qrio waves its hand just like our prototype does and it moves slowly as the prototype presented. Moving

slowly implies no hurry. Waving hand seems being thoughtful for people actively. “Its eyes look cute and make me associate with the waving stick of the prototype, and it also makes me have a better mood when I see it waving to me. Its friendliness and cuteness look like it can help me to do things and allure me very much and I want to make friends with it”. Base on her sorting, our prototype is much more friendly and cute than a common machine.

Subject 2-E

Powerful in function (being consideration) Weak in functions

User’s definition: “Considerable , friendly & cute” “cold and unfriendly”

Figure 5. 4 Subject 2-E’s sorting, She assigned Pearl (and Tsmuk, for a little bit) as our prototype like.

Base on the reason of consideration, subject 2-E considered a machine like dog which can take people’s order such as getting a newspaper may be much powerful. ”It is much willing to do everything for me”, she said. In brief, what she cares about is whether machine can serve people in a friendly way, and that is why she chose a robotic puppy, Aibo, as the most powerful machine. At the same time, it is because that Pearl and Tsmuk looks less considerably, so she put them after Qrio and PaPeRo. As both Pyxis and C3PO looks cold and unfriendly, she does not expect them do anything for her. An interesting thing worth mention about is that she likes robotic dog more than a robotic man. In her opinion, communicate with real person is enough;

she does not need another “fake person” to interact with her.

Subject 2-E, just like subject 2-C, thought the waving stick as a happy dog waving its tail with excitement for welcome people. But she took the wave as a gesture of goodbye. “It is because that it looks like a hand first, so I considered it as a waving hand” (She then make a gesture of wave), she said.In her opinion, both Pearl and Tsmuk have arms to “take out beverages from their body for people”, taking beverages out also gave her a feeling of surprise, and they look like to have capacity for storing beverages. Actually, she thinks Pearl has the closet similarity as our prototype. The Tsmuk looks like a bosom friend, “especially as the prototype can take beverages for me, it is a feeling of consideration”, and it also let me recall the wave”. It is because of

the “consideration” made her chose them. Apparently, our prototype is better than a cold machine in function, and also much more considerable and friendly.

Analysis

Dramatically, in this stage, differing from the former, all subjects replied in concert that they all considered the waving stick as a connotation of being friendly, cute and excited for welcome people. Two of them said it looked like a cute, happy dog quickly waving its tail; the other considered it as a cute person waving at her (it is also found that she did not appreciate a robotic dog either in the interview). Everyone thought that its form looks like a tail or a hand at the first sight and affects their association most. All of them took this feature as the most obvious and cute attribute. In comparison with the results of primary experiment as a whole, waving stick exhibits the most obvious social intention than others due to the assistance in formal cues.

In the sorting course, although there are different sorting results between each subjects, they all mentioned about friendliness and consideration which is considered important to them. Photographic images showed their influence. All subjects was able to relate the prototype doing the action to “bringing beverage to them” when they saw a robot’s arm in cards. Our prototype always located in a position that is friendlier than a machine, also more like a robot and considered as being considerable and friendly.

In this stage of experiments, the waving stick conveys an exciting characteristic when its expression is attached on an image of a cute person or a happy dog. In contrast with the former stage, when the prototype is

associated with a clerk, waving stick became a waving hand and may be considered as being impolite. The feature is the same, but the interpretations vary. Further, we infer reasonably that why some of the subjects pay no more than a glance to it may be the same situation when facing a clerk. To avoid the embarrassing eye contact, people tend to move their eyes away from the clerk’s eyes, but the social ritual told us watching people’s eyes while speak to them is polite.

Again, we find the motion affects people’s associations psychologically, which was considered as friendliness, excited. Form still does a good job when exhibiting social intention especially providing assistant implication. But meanwhile, psychological responses could also result from their feeling more than their cognition of prototype’s intention toward the delivery feature. In other words, they can also perceived the intentions but not through an analog body language. Abstract motions also work more emotionally than cognitively.

As a whole impression, our prototype is friendlier, more considerate and powerful than a common machine. That is why our prototype is more attractive than newfangled. As it is not defined to perform a specific role in form (e.g., a pet or a clerk…), so it diversifies the associations and interpretations and finally affects the psychological perception by motions.

Summary

The findings in this stage are listed below:

ƒ A quickly waving stick is considered as a friendly, cute and excited character.

ƒ Form leads to an associative object, then, the motion affects what the object do.

ƒ Interpretations depend on individual’s preference.

ƒ What prototype does for them may let them feel considerable.

ƒ Abstract motion affects more in emotion than cognition.

ƒ One subject responded to the waving stick by waving her hand when she left.