Attentive towards Surroundings
Communicating robot state | Atomic
Find similiar patterns:
Preamble
Type
Atomic Pattern; Communicating robot state
Ranking
* (tentative)
Version
1
Author
Selina Layer (selina.layer@iao.fraunhofer.de), Kathrin Pollmann (kathrin.pollmann@iao.fraunhofer.de), Christine Busch, Carla Bernadette Bubeck
Design Challenge
Interaction Situation
Being attentive towards the environment means that the robot it scanning its surroundings with sensors to gather information about potential obstacles or people nearby or to collect context data (e.g. lighting conditions, weather). Humans that are present in the environment need to know that sensors are actively recording information and that the robot, based on this information, is capable to avoid collisions.
Communication
Goal
“I am attentive towards my surroundings.”
Design Solution
Solution
Unlike signaling attention towards one specific user or point of interest, scanning the surroundings is a multidirectional activity. Let the robot express that its attention is distributed in all direction around it by using either light or sound. Placing a LED light band around the robot allows to visualize the omnidirectionality. A periodically pulsating LED light signal can be used to indicate that sensor recoding is in progress. Suggested color: blue Alternatively, a single sound that periodically changes its volume can be used (hover sound). Light and sound can also be combined to enable multimodal communication and amplify the communication goal. In that case, the hover sound should be periodically synchronized with the LED light band.
Rationale
Many technical devices use light to communicate their current status. Security cameras often use flashing LEDs to indicate that they are active and aware of their surroundings. The design of the light signal is also inspired by the Amazon Echo devise, that uses pulsating blue light to indicate attention. Speaker devices furthermore often use pulsating sounds, sometimes in combination with light, to communicate their search for a Bluetooth signal, which can be compared with a scanning progress.
References and
Context