Relational Appliances: A Robot in the Refrigerator for Home-Based Health Promotion

TL;DR

This study introduces the concept of relational appliances, exemplified by a robotic head inside a refrigerator, to promote healthy eating through personalized, engaging interactions that influence snack choices at home.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to health promotion by integrating anthropomorphic robots into household appliances for ongoing, personalized engagement.

Findings

Participants found the robot persuasive and engaging.

The robot increased awareness of snack choices.

Participants showed interest in having such robots at home.

Abstract

Kitchen appliances are frequently used domestic artifacts situated at the point of everyday dietary decision making, making them a promising but underexplored site for health promotion. We explore the concept of relational appliances: everyday household devices designed as embodied social actors that engage users through ongoing, personalized interaction. We focus on the refrigerator, whose unique affordances, including a fixed, sensor-rich environment, private interaction space, and close coupling to food items, support contextualized, conversational engagement during snack choices. We present an initial exploration of this concept through a pilot study deploying an anthropomorphic robotic head inside a household refrigerator. In a home-lab apartment, participants repeatedly retrieved snacks during simulated TV "commercial breaks" while interacting with a human-sized robotic head. Participants were randomized to either a health-promotion condition, in which the robot made healthy snack recommendations, or a social-chat control condition. Outcomes included compliance with recommendations, nutritional quality of selected snacks, and psychosocial measures related to acceptance of the robot. Results suggest that participants found the robot persuasive, socially engaging, and increasingly natural over time, often describing it as helpful, aware, and companionable. Most participants reported greater awareness of their snack decisions and expressed interest in having such a robot in their own home. We discuss implications for designing relational appliances that leverage anthropomorphism, trust, and long-term human-technology relationships for home-based health promotion.