'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?': Human proxemic preferences for recognizing robot gestures in physical reality and virtual reality

Sahba El-Shawa; Noah Kraemer; Sara Sheikholeslami; Ross Mead; Elizabeth A. Croft

doi:10.1109/IROS.2017.8202178

'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?': Human proxemic preferences for recognizing robot gestures in physical reality and virtual reality

Sahba El-Shawa, Noah Kraemer, Sara Sheikholeslami, Ross Mead, Elizabeth A. Croft

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The use of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) for studying Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) offers many benefits, including decreased cost and risk as well as increased experimental control and repeatability. Previous work has shown that people reliably underestimate distances in VR; however, the effect of this underestimation on gesture recognition has not been characterized. This work contributes to the validation of immersive VR as a platform for HRI investigation and simulation for training in industry. A matched pair of studies compared the location preferences of human participants when viewing gestures generated by a robot in both virtual and physical environments. Participants were asked to select up to three optimal locations within a bounded region at which they perceived the robot's gesture to be the clearest. We found that the use of VR did increase the preferred proxemic distance (χ² (1) = 18.046, p < 0.001) by approximately 642 ± 96mm. The difference in viewing angle between the virtual and physical environments was not significant, with a 95% confidence interval limiting the difference within -8.6° to +7.9°. Observations relating gesture features to optimal viewing locations are also presented.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017)
Editors	Richard Vaughan
Place of Publication	Piscataway NJ USA
Publisher	IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Pages	341-348
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Electronic)	9781538626825, 9781538626818
ISBN (Print)	9781538626832
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2017.8202178
Publication status	Published - 13 Dec 2017
Externally published	Yes
Event	IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems 2017 - Vancouver, Canada Duration: 24 Sept 2017 → 28 Sept 2017 http://iros2017.org/ https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/8119304/proceeding (Proceedings)

Publication series

Name	IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
Publisher	IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ISSN (Print)	2153-0858
ISSN (Electronic)	2153-0866

Conference

Conference	IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems 2017
Abbreviated title	IROS 2017
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Vancouver
Period	24/09/17 → 28/09/17
Internet address	http://iros2017.org/ https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/8119304/proceeding (Proceedings)

Access to Document

10.1109/IROS.2017.8202178

Cite this

El-Shawa, S., Kraemer, N., Sheikholeslami, S., Mead, R., & Croft, E. A. (2017). 'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?': Human proxemic preferences for recognizing robot gestures in physical reality and virtual reality. In R. Vaughan (Ed.), 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017) (pp. 341-348). (IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems). IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2017.8202178

El-Shawa, Sahba ; Kraemer, Noah ; Sheikholeslami, Sara et al. / 'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?' : Human proxemic preferences for recognizing robot gestures in physical reality and virtual reality. 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017). editor / Richard Vaughan. Piscataway NJ USA : IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2017. pp. 341-348 (IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems).

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abstract = "The use of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) for studying Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) offers many benefits, including decreased cost and risk as well as increased experimental control and repeatability. Previous work has shown that people reliably underestimate distances in VR; however, the effect of this underestimation on gesture recognition has not been characterized. This work contributes to the validation of immersive VR as a platform for HRI investigation and simulation for training in industry. A matched pair of studies compared the location preferences of human participants when viewing gestures generated by a robot in both virtual and physical environments. Participants were asked to select up to three optimal locations within a bounded region at which they perceived the robot's gesture to be the clearest. We found that the use of VR did increase the preferred proxemic distance (χ2 (1) = 18.046, p < 0.001) by approximately 642 ± 96mm. The difference in viewing angle between the virtual and physical environments was not significant, with a 95% confidence interval limiting the difference within -8.6° to +7.9°. Observations relating gesture features to optimal viewing locations are also presented.",

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El-Shawa, S, Kraemer, N, Sheikholeslami, S, Mead, R & Croft, EA 2017, 'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?': Human proxemic preferences for recognizing robot gestures in physical reality and virtual reality. in R Vaughan (ed.), 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017). IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Piscataway NJ USA, pp. 341-348, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems 2017, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 24/09/17. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2017.8202178

'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?': Human proxemic preferences for recognizing robot gestures in physical reality and virtual reality. / El-Shawa, Sahba; Kraemer, Noah; Sheikholeslami, Sara et al.
2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017). ed. / Richard Vaughan. Piscataway NJ USA: IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2017. p. 341-348 (IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review

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El-Shawa S, Kraemer N, Sheikholeslami S, Mead R, Croft EA. 'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?': Human proxemic preferences for recognizing robot gestures in physical reality and virtual reality. In Vaughan R, editor, 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2017). Piscataway NJ USA: IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 2017. p. 341-348. (IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems). doi: 10.1109/IROS.2017.8202178

'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?': Human proxemic preferences for recognizing robot gestures in physical reality and virtual reality

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