This article was first published by Titan (in Norwegian)
When you share something with a friend, a lot of the message is communicated via body language. If you feel happy, your movements are likely to be larger and your face will be lifted upwards. If you are sharing something sad, you are likely to be calmer and slower in your delivery.?
Robots are rappidly being employed for a variety of services. The researchers want to find out whether it is important for robots to also use body language when communicating with us or whether it isn’t all that important – they are robots after all.
“If we find that the use of body language is not important, we will not have to spend any resources on developing it,” explains Marieke van Otterdijk, PhD candidate at RITMO and the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo.
She is conducting research into how people and robots can communicate in the best possible manner.
Body language provides an intuitive understanding of the message
One of the reasons why researchers are looking at body language as part of communication is that it provides an intuitive understanding of the message. “Body language is an important part of human communication and this is why we are good at understanding it, so good that we sometimes assign human characteristics to animals and items,” van Otterdijk claims.
“If we see a dog, we will often interpret its behaviour using human characteristics such as happiness or sadness or we can even imagine that other items like cars or phones have a personality,” she explains.?
The fact that we already assign human characteristics to animals or items is precisely why we need to find out how human-like robots should be like.
“The majority of people would prefer for robots to be human-like, as it will make it easier for us to understand them if they behave like us. However, an interesting paradox is that it can also be uncomfortable for us if they become too similar to us,” says van Otterdijk.
Similarities can become uncomfortable
This paradox is best known as the uncanny valley. It is hard to predict when and why a robot will be perceived as uncanny.?
“Many people argue that the uncanny valley occurs when we expect more from the robot than it is capable of. It creates friction when our expectations are not met,” van Otterdijk explains.
If a robot looks too human-like, we will also expect a human level of communication.?
Housing for the elderly could be staffed by robot assistants in future.
According to van Otterdijk, the robots of the future may become important assistants that can help retrieve items and perform other simple tasks.?
“Perhaps robots could help the elderly to complete forms before going to the doctor so that it is already done. This could save time for the health services,” van Otterdijk explains.
“It is not a goal for robotics to replace carers or human interaction,” says van Otterdijk. It should be a support system. There is an increasing number of elderly people and fewer people to look after them. New solutions are required. In order for the technology to be useful, it needs to be adapted to what the elderly need and want.?
This is why it is important for her to ensure that the elderly play a part in the development of the technology. So far, the experiences have been divergent.?
“Some of the elderly participants were not particularly interested in the robots. They could see the benefits for others but not for themselves,” van Otterdijk explains.
“This one was quite cute”
She also explains that some found it useful that the robots were able to retrieve things or provide some company but that many found that the technology wasn’t particularly relevant to them as it would take a long time for the robot technology to be put into use. Some were also afraid that the technology would be extremely expensive or that the robots would replace employees at the seniors’ centre. However, van Otterdijk says that most of the elderly participants were still quite curious.
“Overall, it has been very fun to work with the elderly and robots. They enjoy seeing them and when I turn the robots on they will say things like “this one is a bit cute”. The elderly often have a million questions because they have never seen robots like these before,” van Otterdijk explains.
In her research, van Otterdijk uses a type of robot called Pepper. When she conducts her experiments she can control the robots remotely in order to adapt them to how the elderly react.?
van Otterdijk tells us about an episode in which she visited a seniors’ centre for people with dementia. An elderly lady had a long conversation with the robot and named it Harry.?
“When I spoke to the nurse, she told me that this lady would otherwise rarely speak,” says van Otterdijk.
This is why van Otterdijk believes that this type of robot could be useful. It provides opportunities for conversation and interaction in ways that can benefit the elderly. This gives hope that the robots can be useful, but there is also a wide range in terms of how the elderly react.?
“One of the ladies attempted to introduce another lady to the robot, but she