Comforting the User

Expressing an emotion | Atomic | Dynamic Expression | Facial Expression | Position

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Preamble

Type

Atomic Pattern, Expressing an emotion

Ranking

* (tentative)

Version

Author

Kathrin Pollmann (kathrin.pollmann@iao.fraunhofer.de)

Design Challenge

Interaction Situation

The user was confronted with a challenge and was not successful. In this situation the robot can act as comforter by showing an expression of empathy. This expression is not so much related to an actual feeling of empathy by the robot (that – as a machine – is not capable of experiencing emotions). Rather, it can be employed as a stylistic device to motivate the user for upcoming activities and prevent demoralization based on the own negative performance.

Communication
Goal

“You can find comfort in my presence.”

Design Solution

Solution

Let the robot express that: The robot creates a feeling of closeness for the user and shows that it can understand (and to some extent even feel itself) how the user experiences negative emotions. To do so, the robot decreases the distance between it and the user to personal distance.

Rationale

References and
Context

Needed by: Empathic negative feedback