What Communication Modalities Do Users Prefer in Real Time HRI?

TL;DR

This study explores user preferences for interaction methods in real-time HRI with KASPAR, revealing no effort-based preference but differing enjoyment levels across modalities.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into user preferences for voice, touch, and visual input modalities in real-time human-robot interaction.

Findings

No effort-based preference among modalities

Significant difference in enjoyment preferences

Marginal difference in perceived robot imitation ability

Abstract

This paper investigates users' preferred interaction modalities when playing an imitation game with KASPAR, a small child-sized humanoid robot. The study involved 16 adult participants teaching the robot to mime a nursery rhyme via one of three interaction modalities in a real-time Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) experiment: voice, guiding touch and visual demonstration. The findings suggest that the users appeared to have no preference in terms of human effort for completing the task. However, there was a significant difference in human enjoyment preferences of input modality and a marginal difference in the robot's perceived ability to imitate.