Eva Hornecker | Bauhaus-University-Weimar - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Eva Hornecker

SN Computer Science , 2023

We present the concept and technical realisation for a cup that moves and lights up to bring itse... more We present the concept and technical realisation for a cup that moves and lights up to bring itself to the attention of a person to trigger him/her taking a sip as a response. We then reflect on different ethical dimensions connected to the application of the cup in the context of people affected by dementia and describe first tests performed in elderly care homes. The concept is aimed at people with dementia in home or resident care who still have the ability to act, but tend to mentally drift away and thus require external impulses and triggers to drink. We found out that a substantial part of the residents fulfil these conditions. The cup moves and lights up in regular intervals if it has not been picked up recently. Once it is emptied, it alerts a caregiver to refill. Moreover, the degree or level of movement and light can be configured, depending on the person's needs and reactions. This paper describes the core idea and the technical aspects of building the prototype. Finally, primary tests were conducted with the aim to construct a protocol and structure for an extended quantitative study.

SN Computer Science, 2023

Care of ageing adults has become a dominant field of application for assistive robot technologies... more Care of ageing adults has become a dominant field of application for assistive robot technologies, promising support for ageing adults residing in care homes and staff, in dealing with practical routine tasks and providing social and emotional relieve. A time consuming and human intensive necessity is the maintenance of high hygiene quality in care homes. Robotic vacuum cleaners have been proven effective for doing the job elsewhere, but-in the context of care homes-are counterproductive for residents' well-being and do not get accepted. This is because people with dementia manifest their agency in more implicit and emotional ways, while making sense of the world around them. Starting from these premises, we explored how a zoomorphic designed vacuum cleaner could better accommodate the sensemaking of people with dementia. Our design reconceptualises robotic vacuum cleaners as a cat-like robot, referring to a playful behaviour and appearance to communicate a non-threatening and familiar role model. Data from an observational study shows that residents responded positively to our prototype, as most of them engaged playfully with it as if it was a pet or a cat-like toy, for example luring it with gestures. Some residents simply ignored the robot, indicating that it was not perceived as frightening or annoying. The level of activity influenced reactions; residents ignored our prototype if busy with other occupations, which proves that it did not cause significant disturbance. We further report results from focus group sessions with formal and informal caregivers who discussed a video prototype of our robot. Caregivers encouraged us to enhance the animal like characteristics (in behaviour and materiality) even further to result in richer interactions and provoke haptic pleasure but also pointed out that residents should not mistake the robot for a real cat.

Proceedings of the 20th conference of the computer-human interaction special interest group (CHISIG) of Australia on Computer-human interaction: design: activities, artefacts and environments - OZCHI '06, 2006

Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI New Zealand chapter's international conference on Computer-human interaction design centered HCI - CHINZ '06, 2006

Proc. of ACM TEI'22, 2022

A growing body of work focuses on physicalisations based on personal, everyday data. Despite grow... more A growing body of work focuses on physicalisations based on personal, everyday data. Despite growing interest, little is known about how to educate people on their creation. We designed a teaching method of 'Data Diaries', which consists of five representation assignments that move from visualising to physicalising personal data. The Data Diaries were used in a semester project, with the aim of creating an interactive physicalisation. We analysed the Data Diaries, written reports, and participant interviews. Our analysis shows that people need to overcome the challenge of using materiality to communicate data, which happens in four stages. Moreover, the materiality made participants realise that physicalisations do not focus on efficiency and accuracy, but on the story of the data, by referring to its origin, use of personal mappings, and reduction. As physicalisations blur the line between quantitative and qualitative, designing them engenders a change in our notion of 'data'.

Proc. of ACM TEI'22, 2022

This paper gives an overview of our work-in-progress prototype of a textile-pneumatic force-feedb... more This paper gives an overview of our work-in-progress prototype of a textile-pneumatic force-feedback system that augments the user-interaction on touch-sensor strips with interactive tactile cues. Air-pressure inside a shape-changing textile actuator is dynamically modulated, to create a perceivable pinch-like impression at the user's fingertip. This dynamic pneumotactile pinch can be leveraged as a tangible output modality for interaction design. The soft actuators are driven by a pneumatic control system that adjusts the pneumatic pressure in response to the finger position. We have explored different textile air-chamber layouts to achieve tactile feedback and provide a preliminary discussion of their tactile capabilities and design patterns. We further give a brief overview of three different pneumatic control system architectures and their underlying tactile pressure profiles used to operate the actuators to create different types of tactile sensations. A preliminary discussion of the capabilities, challenges, and limitations of our system is also provided.

HRI '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 2022

The workshop investigates two major boundaries within HRI design and research: Firstly, we aim to... more The workshop investigates two major boundaries within HRI design and research: Firstly, we aim to cross the boundaries of engaging in interdisciplinary collaboration of such divergent disciplines as engineering, design, psychology, philosophy and sociology. Secondly, we aim to cross the boundaries of HRI design and social contexts of use-often referred to as 'real world' environments. This endeavor is not new, however we aim for approaching these two boarders of HRI research and design more systematically, e.g. by providing new methodological impulses. The idea of "configuring" has a long tradition in Science and Technology Studies (STS) to describe how potential users and use cases are shaped and in turn reshaped (configured) throughout technology design-be it explicitly or accidentally. Given HRI is becoming deeper integrated in 'real world' contexts, such as public spaces, homes and care facilities, we argue for the need for a re-configuration. This includes a critical reflection of material, procedural and methodological implications that shape future users within HRI design practices-for and together with people.

Proc. of ACM CHI'22, 2022

Any active entity that shares space with people is interpreted as a social actor. Based on this n... more Any active entity that shares space with people is interpreted as a social actor. Based on this notion, we explore how robots that integrate functional utility with a social role and character can integrate meaningfully into daily practice. Informed by interviews and observations, we designed a zoomorphic foor cleaning robot which playfully interacts with care home residents afected by dementia. A feld study shows that playful interaction can facilitate the introduction of utilitarian robots in care homes, being nonthreatening and easy to make sense of. Residents previously reacted with distress to a Roomba robot, but were now amused by and played with our cartoonish cat robot or simply tolerated its presence. They showed awareness of the machine-nature of the robot, even while engaging in pretend-play. A playful approach to the design of functional robots can thus explicitly conceptualize such robots as social actors in their context of use.

Proc. of ACM CHI'22, 2022

Technology research for neurodivergent conditions is largely shaped by research aims which privil... more Technology research for neurodivergent conditions is largely shaped by research aims which privilege neuro-normative outcomes. As such, there is an epistemic imbalance in meaning making about these technologies. We conducted a critical literature review of technologies designed for people with ADHD, focusing on how ADHD is framed, the research aims and approaches, the role of people with ADHD within the research process, and the types of systems being developed within Computing and HCI. Our analysis and review is conducted explicitly from an insider perspective, bringing our perspectives as neurodivergent researchers to the topic of technologies in the context of ADHD. We found that 1) technologies are largely used to 'mitigate' the experiences of ADHD which are perceived as disruptive to neurotypical standards of behaviour; 2) little HCI research in the area invites this population to co-construct the technologies or to leverage neurodivergent experiences in the construction of research aims; and 3) participant resistance to deficit frames can be read within the researchers' own accounts of participant actions. We discuss the implications of this status quo for disabled people and technology researchers alike, and close with a set of recommendations for future work in this area.

ACM interactions, 2022

Dyadic concepts of single-user interaction underly most current HRI theory, experiments, and eval... more Dyadic concepts of single-user interaction underly most current HRI theory, experiments, and evaluations. This dyadic focus is especially inappropriate
in the care context, as robotic functionality and agency are a situated, mutual construction. We should consider HRI as mediated interactions between multiple agents.

Proc. of Mensch und Computer 2022, 2022

Cultural probes are a popular approach for research settings where researchers cannot observe dir... more Cultural probes are a popular approach for research settings where researchers cannot observe directly, instead letting participants work on tasks in their own time. The creation of attractive cultural probes can be a time-consuming process requiring a diverse skillset. We suggest the use of pop-up paper elements as a simple, cheap, and effective way to engage participants. We explain how to craft the material based on a case study with Pop-Up Probes used as warm-up exercise for a co-creation session to make participants reflect on their own relationship with objects in their home. Based on this case study we illustrate what information can be attained from the cultural probes and discuss opportunities to transfer the method to other contexts.

Proc. of Academic Mindtrek '22 Conference, 2022

For a long-time HCI discourse has viewed ageing and elderly care through a medicalised lens in wh... more For a long-time HCI discourse has viewed ageing and elderly care through a medicalised lens in which care is broken down into distinct problems, such as activities of daily living and addressing accessibility problems. Increasingly, this approach is criticised within the HCI community. Adding to this critique, we asked non-experts to imagine the life of Lor, a 189 year old woman who needs support in her daily life, through an adapted story elicitation method The resulting stories present care as a network which is set against a backdrop of societal changes and environmental factors, such as climate change. In this paper, we distil the rich worlds developed in these stories into reflective questions to support designers to "stay with the trouble" of caregiving and reflect on their own work as well as creating novel grounds for the engagement with care technologies.

Proc. of MUM'22, 2022

The number of connected devices in-home has increased rapidly, and connected solutions in smart h... more The number of connected devices in-home has increased rapidly, and connected solutions in smart homes do not yet cover needs of all inhabitants. We explored future interfaces that blend seamlessly with the home interior in co-creation sessions with people from diverse co-living situations. The results contribute to acknowledging a home's complexity considering shared households as places where many needs meet and possibly contradict each other. Based on findings from three workshop sessions with a total of 12 participants, we present two themes of relevance when designing for smart homes. Covering both, a smart home can adapt to users' needs and become valuable members of multi-people households while maintaining the characteristics of a home for all individuals.

Proc. of MUM'22, 2022

We contribute to an improved understanding of how physical multisensory data representations are ... more We contribute to an improved understanding of how physical multisensory data representations are experienced and how specific modalities affect the user experience (UX). We investigate how people make sense of Birdbox, a crossmodal data representation that employs combined haptic-audio, audiovisual , or visual-haptic output for data about birds. Findings indicate that participants preferred haptic output for the bodily experience it triggered. Participants further created their own mappings between data and modality; haptic was mapped to aggression, and audio to speed. Especially with (soft) haptic output, Birdbox was experienced as a living entity. This can also be seen in participants' bodily interactions, holding Birdbox as if it were a small bird. We contribute to a better understanding of the UX of different modalities in multisensory data representations, highlight strengths of the haptic modality, and of metaphorical understandings of modalities.

Proc. of MUM'22, 2022

Self-tracking technologies have long promised to enhance our wellbeing. However, our initial work... more Self-tracking technologies have long promised to enhance our wellbeing. However, our initial work and that of others show that most of these technologies focus on data, not the user. Based on interviews, development of mood boards, and the creation of a research product, we propose an alternative approach to self-tracking: rehumanising self-tracking technologies. Our work shows that feelings play an important role with data, that data are temporal, and associated with work and utility. We interpret four design criteria, which are applied in the creation of Frankie: a human-centred tracking device which records both quantitative (number of activities) and qualitative (perceived weight of the activity and spoken reflections) data to foster self-reflection. Through this design case we add to the discussion on re-imagining self-tracking technologies to go beyond data-centric artefacts.

Proc. of Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM 2021). ACM New York, pp 242–251., 2021

Robots are predominantly thought of as monolithic, unitary actors: they are almost always designe... more Robots are predominantly thought of as monolithic, unitary actors: they are almost always designed as having a clearly defined body. We rethink this concept of a unified and coherently embodied robot with the example context of elderly care. We explore alternative design spaces for robots in care that open up new modes of interaction for residents and caregivers. We present design studies that explore this notion based on the development of a plant-watering robotic ensemble. The ensemble consists of various elements that inform interacting persons about the robot’s task and its role in a storytelling or poetic way. We show how we further explored this idea of a ‘robot as theatre’ in two different configurations – one agentic and one diorama – and a version that integrates feedback from focus groups with care experts.

Pissaloux E., Papadopoulos G.A., Achilleos A., Velázquez R. (eds) ICT for Health, Accessibility and Wellbeing. IHAW 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1538. Springer, Cham. pp 141-155., 2021

We present the concept and technical realisation for a cup that moves and lights up so as to brin... more We present the concept and technical realisation for a cup that moves and lights up so as to bring itself to the attention of a person with dementia, to trigger taking a sip as a response. The concept is aimed at people with dementia in home or resident care who still have the ability to act, but tend to mentally drift away and thus require external impulses and triggers. The cup moves and lights up in regular intervals if it has not been picked up recently. Once it is emptied, it alerts a caregiver to refill. Moreover, the degree or level of movement and light can be configured, depending on the person's needs and reactions. This paper describes the core idea and focuses on the technical aspects of building a prototype on Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3.

Pissaloux E., Papadopoulos G.A., Achilleos A., Velázquez R. (eds) ICT for Health, Accessibility and Wellbeing. IHAW 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1538. Springer, Cham. pp 141-155., 2021

Robot technologies for care homes and people affected by dementia has become a popular research f... more Robot technologies for care homes and people affected by dementia has become a popular research field. However, such technologies have not become mainstream in care homes yet, due to specific issues related to the well being of their residents. For instance, although existing robot vacuum cleaners can provide meaningful support to hygiene practices in care homes, their appearance and loud noise can negatively affect residents. Building on these insights, we developed a playful alternative design. Through a user study conducted in a care home, we have found that a robotic vacuum cleaner can be accepted by residents affected by dementia, when it has a playful appearance and movement pattern, to elicit positive feelings and provide predictability of its actions.

Proc. of ACM CHI-PLAY 2021, 2021

The book 'Sally&Molly' is for children aged five to ten, a phase where children transition from a... more The book 'Sally&Molly' is for children aged five to ten, a phase where children transition from a self-centered view of the world to social understanding. Via mobile AR we offer a second layer to the book and playful activities with it. We describe the design and design rationale, and explore cooperative real-time multiplayer mechanics for children in mobile AR.

Proc. of ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’21), ACM, NY, , 2021

sssnake is a soft toy that allows multiuser play over distance as well as single users playing al... more sssnake is a soft toy that allows multiuser play over distance as well as single users playing alone. It has a haptic interface and can connect children (especially during the COVID-19 pandemic) while avoiding the usage of screen-based media. It combines social interaction inspired from online gaming with a playful way to learn about music and instruments. We present a handcrafted prototype manufactured from e-textiles, wool and grape seeds. The sssnake prototype was evaluated in a user study with ten children aged between one and eight years. The study showed that online connected soft toys can be an extension to traditional possibilities of socializing and play.

SN Computer Science , 2023

We present the concept and technical realisation for a cup that moves and lights up to bring itse... more We present the concept and technical realisation for a cup that moves and lights up to bring itself to the attention of a person to trigger him/her taking a sip as a response. We then reflect on different ethical dimensions connected to the application of the cup in the context of people affected by dementia and describe first tests performed in elderly care homes. The concept is aimed at people with dementia in home or resident care who still have the ability to act, but tend to mentally drift away and thus require external impulses and triggers to drink. We found out that a substantial part of the residents fulfil these conditions. The cup moves and lights up in regular intervals if it has not been picked up recently. Once it is emptied, it alerts a caregiver to refill. Moreover, the degree or level of movement and light can be configured, depending on the person's needs and reactions. This paper describes the core idea and the technical aspects of building the prototype. Finally, primary tests were conducted with the aim to construct a protocol and structure for an extended quantitative study.

SN Computer Science, 2023

Care of ageing adults has become a dominant field of application for assistive robot technologies... more Care of ageing adults has become a dominant field of application for assistive robot technologies, promising support for ageing adults residing in care homes and staff, in dealing with practical routine tasks and providing social and emotional relieve. A time consuming and human intensive necessity is the maintenance of high hygiene quality in care homes. Robotic vacuum cleaners have been proven effective for doing the job elsewhere, but-in the context of care homes-are counterproductive for residents' well-being and do not get accepted. This is because people with dementia manifest their agency in more implicit and emotional ways, while making sense of the world around them. Starting from these premises, we explored how a zoomorphic designed vacuum cleaner could better accommodate the sensemaking of people with dementia. Our design reconceptualises robotic vacuum cleaners as a cat-like robot, referring to a playful behaviour and appearance to communicate a non-threatening and familiar role model. Data from an observational study shows that residents responded positively to our prototype, as most of them engaged playfully with it as if it was a pet or a cat-like toy, for example luring it with gestures. Some residents simply ignored the robot, indicating that it was not perceived as frightening or annoying. The level of activity influenced reactions; residents ignored our prototype if busy with other occupations, which proves that it did not cause significant disturbance. We further report results from focus group sessions with formal and informal caregivers who discussed a video prototype of our robot. Caregivers encouraged us to enhance the animal like characteristics (in behaviour and materiality) even further to result in richer interactions and provoke haptic pleasure but also pointed out that residents should not mistake the robot for a real cat.

Proceedings of the 20th conference of the computer-human interaction special interest group (CHISIG) of Australia on Computer-human interaction: design: activities, artefacts and environments - OZCHI '06, 2006

Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI New Zealand chapter's international conference on Computer-human interaction design centered HCI - CHINZ '06, 2006

Proc. of ACM TEI'22, 2022

A growing body of work focuses on physicalisations based on personal, everyday data. Despite grow... more A growing body of work focuses on physicalisations based on personal, everyday data. Despite growing interest, little is known about how to educate people on their creation. We designed a teaching method of 'Data Diaries', which consists of five representation assignments that move from visualising to physicalising personal data. The Data Diaries were used in a semester project, with the aim of creating an interactive physicalisation. We analysed the Data Diaries, written reports, and participant interviews. Our analysis shows that people need to overcome the challenge of using materiality to communicate data, which happens in four stages. Moreover, the materiality made participants realise that physicalisations do not focus on efficiency and accuracy, but on the story of the data, by referring to its origin, use of personal mappings, and reduction. As physicalisations blur the line between quantitative and qualitative, designing them engenders a change in our notion of 'data'.

Proc. of ACM TEI'22, 2022

This paper gives an overview of our work-in-progress prototype of a textile-pneumatic force-feedb... more This paper gives an overview of our work-in-progress prototype of a textile-pneumatic force-feedback system that augments the user-interaction on touch-sensor strips with interactive tactile cues. Air-pressure inside a shape-changing textile actuator is dynamically modulated, to create a perceivable pinch-like impression at the user's fingertip. This dynamic pneumotactile pinch can be leveraged as a tangible output modality for interaction design. The soft actuators are driven by a pneumatic control system that adjusts the pneumatic pressure in response to the finger position. We have explored different textile air-chamber layouts to achieve tactile feedback and provide a preliminary discussion of their tactile capabilities and design patterns. We further give a brief overview of three different pneumatic control system architectures and their underlying tactile pressure profiles used to operate the actuators to create different types of tactile sensations. A preliminary discussion of the capabilities, challenges, and limitations of our system is also provided.

HRI '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 2022

The workshop investigates two major boundaries within HRI design and research: Firstly, we aim to... more The workshop investigates two major boundaries within HRI design and research: Firstly, we aim to cross the boundaries of engaging in interdisciplinary collaboration of such divergent disciplines as engineering, design, psychology, philosophy and sociology. Secondly, we aim to cross the boundaries of HRI design and social contexts of use-often referred to as 'real world' environments. This endeavor is not new, however we aim for approaching these two boarders of HRI research and design more systematically, e.g. by providing new methodological impulses. The idea of "configuring" has a long tradition in Science and Technology Studies (STS) to describe how potential users and use cases are shaped and in turn reshaped (configured) throughout technology design-be it explicitly or accidentally. Given HRI is becoming deeper integrated in 'real world' contexts, such as public spaces, homes and care facilities, we argue for the need for a re-configuration. This includes a critical reflection of material, procedural and methodological implications that shape future users within HRI design practices-for and together with people.

Proc. of ACM CHI'22, 2022

Any active entity that shares space with people is interpreted as a social actor. Based on this n... more Any active entity that shares space with people is interpreted as a social actor. Based on this notion, we explore how robots that integrate functional utility with a social role and character can integrate meaningfully into daily practice. Informed by interviews and observations, we designed a zoomorphic foor cleaning robot which playfully interacts with care home residents afected by dementia. A feld study shows that playful interaction can facilitate the introduction of utilitarian robots in care homes, being nonthreatening and easy to make sense of. Residents previously reacted with distress to a Roomba robot, but were now amused by and played with our cartoonish cat robot or simply tolerated its presence. They showed awareness of the machine-nature of the robot, even while engaging in pretend-play. A playful approach to the design of functional robots can thus explicitly conceptualize such robots as social actors in their context of use.

Proc. of ACM CHI'22, 2022

Technology research for neurodivergent conditions is largely shaped by research aims which privil... more Technology research for neurodivergent conditions is largely shaped by research aims which privilege neuro-normative outcomes. As such, there is an epistemic imbalance in meaning making about these technologies. We conducted a critical literature review of technologies designed for people with ADHD, focusing on how ADHD is framed, the research aims and approaches, the role of people with ADHD within the research process, and the types of systems being developed within Computing and HCI. Our analysis and review is conducted explicitly from an insider perspective, bringing our perspectives as neurodivergent researchers to the topic of technologies in the context of ADHD. We found that 1) technologies are largely used to 'mitigate' the experiences of ADHD which are perceived as disruptive to neurotypical standards of behaviour; 2) little HCI research in the area invites this population to co-construct the technologies or to leverage neurodivergent experiences in the construction of research aims; and 3) participant resistance to deficit frames can be read within the researchers' own accounts of participant actions. We discuss the implications of this status quo for disabled people and technology researchers alike, and close with a set of recommendations for future work in this area.

ACM interactions, 2022

Dyadic concepts of single-user interaction underly most current HRI theory, experiments, and eval... more Dyadic concepts of single-user interaction underly most current HRI theory, experiments, and evaluations. This dyadic focus is especially inappropriate
in the care context, as robotic functionality and agency are a situated, mutual construction. We should consider HRI as mediated interactions between multiple agents.

Proc. of Mensch und Computer 2022, 2022

Cultural probes are a popular approach for research settings where researchers cannot observe dir... more Cultural probes are a popular approach for research settings where researchers cannot observe directly, instead letting participants work on tasks in their own time. The creation of attractive cultural probes can be a time-consuming process requiring a diverse skillset. We suggest the use of pop-up paper elements as a simple, cheap, and effective way to engage participants. We explain how to craft the material based on a case study with Pop-Up Probes used as warm-up exercise for a co-creation session to make participants reflect on their own relationship with objects in their home. Based on this case study we illustrate what information can be attained from the cultural probes and discuss opportunities to transfer the method to other contexts.

Proc. of Academic Mindtrek '22 Conference, 2022

For a long-time HCI discourse has viewed ageing and elderly care through a medicalised lens in wh... more For a long-time HCI discourse has viewed ageing and elderly care through a medicalised lens in which care is broken down into distinct problems, such as activities of daily living and addressing accessibility problems. Increasingly, this approach is criticised within the HCI community. Adding to this critique, we asked non-experts to imagine the life of Lor, a 189 year old woman who needs support in her daily life, through an adapted story elicitation method The resulting stories present care as a network which is set against a backdrop of societal changes and environmental factors, such as climate change. In this paper, we distil the rich worlds developed in these stories into reflective questions to support designers to "stay with the trouble" of caregiving and reflect on their own work as well as creating novel grounds for the engagement with care technologies.

Proc. of MUM'22, 2022

The number of connected devices in-home has increased rapidly, and connected solutions in smart h... more The number of connected devices in-home has increased rapidly, and connected solutions in smart homes do not yet cover needs of all inhabitants. We explored future interfaces that blend seamlessly with the home interior in co-creation sessions with people from diverse co-living situations. The results contribute to acknowledging a home's complexity considering shared households as places where many needs meet and possibly contradict each other. Based on findings from three workshop sessions with a total of 12 participants, we present two themes of relevance when designing for smart homes. Covering both, a smart home can adapt to users' needs and become valuable members of multi-people households while maintaining the characteristics of a home for all individuals.

Proc. of MUM'22, 2022

We contribute to an improved understanding of how physical multisensory data representations are ... more We contribute to an improved understanding of how physical multisensory data representations are experienced and how specific modalities affect the user experience (UX). We investigate how people make sense of Birdbox, a crossmodal data representation that employs combined haptic-audio, audiovisual , or visual-haptic output for data about birds. Findings indicate that participants preferred haptic output for the bodily experience it triggered. Participants further created their own mappings between data and modality; haptic was mapped to aggression, and audio to speed. Especially with (soft) haptic output, Birdbox was experienced as a living entity. This can also be seen in participants' bodily interactions, holding Birdbox as if it were a small bird. We contribute to a better understanding of the UX of different modalities in multisensory data representations, highlight strengths of the haptic modality, and of metaphorical understandings of modalities.

Proc. of MUM'22, 2022

Self-tracking technologies have long promised to enhance our wellbeing. However, our initial work... more Self-tracking technologies have long promised to enhance our wellbeing. However, our initial work and that of others show that most of these technologies focus on data, not the user. Based on interviews, development of mood boards, and the creation of a research product, we propose an alternative approach to self-tracking: rehumanising self-tracking technologies. Our work shows that feelings play an important role with data, that data are temporal, and associated with work and utility. We interpret four design criteria, which are applied in the creation of Frankie: a human-centred tracking device which records both quantitative (number of activities) and qualitative (perceived weight of the activity and spoken reflections) data to foster self-reflection. Through this design case we add to the discussion on re-imagining self-tracking technologies to go beyond data-centric artefacts.

Proc. of Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM 2021). ACM New York, pp 242–251., 2021

Robots are predominantly thought of as monolithic, unitary actors: they are almost always designe... more Robots are predominantly thought of as monolithic, unitary actors: they are almost always designed as having a clearly defined body. We rethink this concept of a unified and coherently embodied robot with the example context of elderly care. We explore alternative design spaces for robots in care that open up new modes of interaction for residents and caregivers. We present design studies that explore this notion based on the development of a plant-watering robotic ensemble. The ensemble consists of various elements that inform interacting persons about the robot’s task and its role in a storytelling or poetic way. We show how we further explored this idea of a ‘robot as theatre’ in two different configurations – one agentic and one diorama – and a version that integrates feedback from focus groups with care experts.

Pissaloux E., Papadopoulos G.A., Achilleos A., Velázquez R. (eds) ICT for Health, Accessibility and Wellbeing. IHAW 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1538. Springer, Cham. pp 141-155., 2021

We present the concept and technical realisation for a cup that moves and lights up so as to brin... more We present the concept and technical realisation for a cup that moves and lights up so as to bring itself to the attention of a person with dementia, to trigger taking a sip as a response. The concept is aimed at people with dementia in home or resident care who still have the ability to act, but tend to mentally drift away and thus require external impulses and triggers. The cup moves and lights up in regular intervals if it has not been picked up recently. Once it is emptied, it alerts a caregiver to refill. Moreover, the degree or level of movement and light can be configured, depending on the person's needs and reactions. This paper describes the core idea and focuses on the technical aspects of building a prototype on Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3.

Pissaloux E., Papadopoulos G.A., Achilleos A., Velázquez R. (eds) ICT for Health, Accessibility and Wellbeing. IHAW 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1538. Springer, Cham. pp 141-155., 2021

Robot technologies for care homes and people affected by dementia has become a popular research f... more Robot technologies for care homes and people affected by dementia has become a popular research field. However, such technologies have not become mainstream in care homes yet, due to specific issues related to the well being of their residents. For instance, although existing robot vacuum cleaners can provide meaningful support to hygiene practices in care homes, their appearance and loud noise can negatively affect residents. Building on these insights, we developed a playful alternative design. Through a user study conducted in a care home, we have found that a robotic vacuum cleaner can be accepted by residents affected by dementia, when it has a playful appearance and movement pattern, to elicit positive feelings and provide predictability of its actions.

Proc. of ACM CHI-PLAY 2021, 2021

The book 'Sally&Molly' is for children aged five to ten, a phase where children transition from a... more The book 'Sally&Molly' is for children aged five to ten, a phase where children transition from a self-centered view of the world to social understanding. Via mobile AR we offer a second layer to the book and playful activities with it. We describe the design and design rationale, and explore cooperative real-time multiplayer mechanics for children in mobile AR.

Proc. of ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC ’21), ACM, NY, , 2021

sssnake is a soft toy that allows multiuser play over distance as well as single users playing al... more sssnake is a soft toy that allows multiuser play over distance as well as single users playing alone. It has a haptic interface and can connect children (especially during the COVID-19 pandemic) while avoiding the usage of screen-based media. It combines social interaction inspired from online gaming with a playful way to learn about music and instruments. We present a handcrafted prototype manufactured from e-textiles, wool and grape seeds. The sssnake prototype was evaluated in a user study with ten children aged between one and eight years. The study showed that online connected soft toys can be an extension to traditional possibilities of socializing and play.