LATEST PUBLICATIONS

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  • "I’m Not Touching You. It’s The Robot!": Inclusion Through A Touch-Based Robot Among Mixed-Visual Ability Children Honorable Mention
  • Isabel Neto, Yuhan Hu, Filipa Correia, et al. 2024. "I’m Not Touching You. It’s The Robot!": Inclusion Through A Touch-Based Robot Among Mixed-Visual Ability Children. Proceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Association for Computing Machinery, 511–521. http://doi.org/10.1145/3610977.3634992
  • [ABSTRACT] [PDF] [LIBRARY]

  Children with visual impairments often struggle to fully participate in group activities due to limited access to visual cues. They have difficulty perceiving what is happening, when, and how to act-leading to children with and without visual impairments being frustrated with the group activity, reducing mutual interactions. To address this, we created Touchibo, a tactile storyteller robot acting in a multisensory setting, encouraging touch-based interactions. Touchibo provides an inclusive space for group interaction as touch is a highly accessible modality in a mixed-visual ability context. In a study involving 107 children (37 with visual impairments), we compared Touchibo to an audio-only storyteller. Results indicate that Touchibo significantly improved children’s individual and group participation perception, sparking touch-based interactions and the storyteller was more likable and helpful. Our study highlights touch-based robots’ potential to enrich children’s social interactions by prompting interpersonal touch, particularly in mixed-visual ability settings.
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  • Conveying Emotions through Shape-changing to Children with and without Visual Impairment
  • Isabel Neto, Yuhan Hu, Filipa Correia, et al. 2024. Conveying Emotions through Shape-changing to Children with and without Visual Impairment. Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing Machinery.
  • [ABSTRACT] [PDF]

  Shape-changing skin is an exciting modality due to its accessible and engaging nature. Its softness and flexibility make it adaptable to different interactive devices that children with and without visual impairments can share. Although their potential as an emotionally expressive medium has been shown for sighted adults, their potential as an inclusive modality remains unexplored. This work explores the shape-emotional mappings in children with and without visual impairment. We conducted a user study with 50 children (26 with visual impairment) to investigate their emotional associations with five skin shapes and two movement conditions. Results show that shape-emotional mappings are dependent on visual abilities. Our study raises awareness of the influence of visual experiences on tactile vocabulary and emotional mapping among sighted, low-vision, and blind children. We finish discussing the caus
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  • The Effects of Observing Robotic Ostracism on Children’s Prosociality and Basic Needs Honorable Mention
  • Filipa Correia, Isabel Neto, Soraia Paulo, et al. 2024. The Effects of Observing Robotic Ostracism on Children’s Prosociality and Basic Needs. Proceedings of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Association for Computing Machinery, 157–166. http://doi.org/10.1145/3610977.3634997
  • [ABSTRACT] [PDF] [LIBRARY]

  Research on robotic ostracism is still scarce and has only explored its effects on adult populations. Although the results revealed important carryover effects of robotic exclusion, there is no evidence yet that those results occur in child-robot interactions. This paper provides the first exploration of robotic ostracism with children. We conducted a study using the Robotic Cyberball Paradigm in a third-person perspective with a sample of 52 children aged between five to ten years old. The experimental study had two conditions: Exclusion and Inclusion. In the Exclusion condition, children observed a peer being excluded by two robots; while in the Inclusion condition, the observed peer interacted equally with the robots. Notably, even 5-year-old children could discern when robots excluded another child. Children who observed exclusion reported lower levels of belonging and control, and exhibited higher prosocial behaviour than those witnessing inclusion. However, no differences were found in children’s meaningful existence, self-esteem, and physical proximity across conditions. Our user study provides important methodological considerations for applying the Robotic Cyberball Paradigm with children. The results extend previous literature on both robotic ostracism with adults and interpersonal ostracism with children. We finish discussing the broader implications of children observing ostracism in human-robot interactions.
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  • Workshop: Fostering Feminist Community-Led Ethics: Building Tools and Connections
  • Ana Henriques, Hugo Nicolau, Anna R. L. Carter, et al. 2024. Workshop: Fostering Feminist Community-Led Ethics: Building Tools and Connections. DIS ’24 Designing Interactive Systems.
  • [ABSTRACT] [PDF]

  This workshop proposal advocates for a dynamic, community-led approach to ethics in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) by inte- grating principles from feminist HCI and digital civics. Traditional ethics in HCI often overlook interpersonal considerations, result- ing in static frameworks ill-equipped to address dynamic social contexts and power dynamics. Drawing from feminist perspec- tives, the workshop aims to lay the groundwork for developing a meta-toolkit for community-led feminist ethics, fostering collab- orative research practices grounded in feminist ethical principles. Through pre-workshop activities, interactive sessions, and post- workshop discussions, participants will engage in dialogue to ad- vance community-led ethical research practices. Additionally, the workshop seeks to strengthen the interdisciplinary community of researchers and practitioners interested in ethics, digital civics, and feminist HCI. By fostering a reflexive approach to ethics, the work- shop contributes to the discourse on design’s role in shaping future interactions between individuals, communities, and technology.
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  • Workshop: Envisioning Collaborative Futures: Advancing the Frontiers of Embedded Research
  • Anna R. L. Carter, Kyle Montague, Reem Talhouk, et al. 2024. Workshop: Envisioning Collaborative Futures: Advancing the Frontiers of Embedded Research. PDC ’24 Participatory Design Conference.
  • [ABSTRACT] [PDF]

  Participatory design initiatives, especially within the realm of digital civics, are often integrated and codeveloped with the very citizens and communities they intend to assist. Digital civics research aims to create positive social change using a variety of digital technologies. These research projects commonly adopt various embedded processes, such as commissioning models [5]. Despite the adoption of this process within a range of domains, there isn’t currently a framework for best practices and accountability procedures to ensure we engage with citizens ethically and ensure the sustainability of our projects. This workshop aims to provide a space to start collaboratively constructing a dynamic framework of best practices, laying the groundwork for the future of sustainable embedded research processes. The overarching goal is to foster discussions and share insights that contribute to developing effective practices, ensuring the longevity and impact of participatory digital civics projects.
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  • Workshop: Participatory Design with Young Children: Failures, Challenges, and Successes
  • Katharina Buckmayer, Filipa Rocha, Elisa Rubegni, Reem R. Talhouk, Hugo Nicolau, and Ana C. Pires. 2024. Workshop: Participatory Design with Young Children: Failures, Challenges, and Successes. IDC ’24 Interaction Design and Children, ACM. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/view/idc-2024-workshop-pd/organisers
  • [ABSTRACT] [PDF] [LIBRARY]

  This paper introduces a hands-on workshop centered on participatory design (PD) approaches tailored for engaging young children, with a special focus on failures, challenges, and successes in prior experiences within the child-computer interaction (CCI) domain. Although previous efforts have highlighted the advantages of engaging young children in PD, research has overlooked their involvement as co-designers, leading to a lack of exploration and understanding of their unique perspectives and challenges in the design process. Through an interactive session and collaborative activities, this workshop will facilitate discussions surrounding challenges, successes, and lessons learned through PD with young children. By evaluating and exchanging experiences, we aim to enhance our understanding of PD and refine its methodologies for this particular population. By synthesizing the shortcomings, difficulties, and successes of past experiences, the workshop will bring together researchers and practitioners to initiate efforts toward closing this research gap. Together we will establish the groundwork for enhanced approaches and a deeper understanding of how to involve young children in PD, which will enhance future efforts in the field of CCI.
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  • DCitizens Roles Unveiled: SIG Navigating Identities in Digital Civics and the Spectrum of Societal Impact
  • Anna R. L. Carter, Kyle Montague, Reem Talhouk, et al. 2024. DCitizens Roles Unveiled: SIG Navigating Identities in Digital Civics and the Spectrum of Societal Impact. CHI ’24 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM.
  • [ABSTRACT] [PDF]

  The DCitizens SIG aims to navigate ethical dimensions in forthcoming Digital Civics projects, ensuring enduring benefits and community resilience. Additionally, it seeks to shape the future landscape of digital civics for ethical and sustainable interventions. As we dive into these interactive processes, a challenge arises of discerning authentic intentions and validating perspectives. This exploration extends to evaluating the sustainability of future interactions and scrutinising biases impacting engaged communities. The commitment is to ensure future outcomes align with genuine community needs and address the ethical imperative of a considerate departure strategy. This dialogue encourages future researchers and practitioners to integrate ethical considerations and community-centric principles, fostering a more sustainable and responsible approach to technology-driven interventions in future urban regeneration and beyond.