TY - GEN
T1 - Cross-Cultural Design and Evaluation of Robot Prototypes Based on Kawaii (Cute) Attributes
AU - Berque, Dave
AU - Chiba, Hiroko
AU - Laohakangvalvit, Tipporn
AU - Ohkura, Michiko
AU - Sripian, Peeraya
AU - Sugaya, Midori
AU - Bautista, Kevin
AU - Blakey, Jordyn
AU - Chen, Feng
AU - Huang, Wenkang
AU - Imura, Shun
AU - Murayama, Kento
AU - Spehlmann, Eric
AU - Wright, Cade
N1 - Funding Information:
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OISE-1854255. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. We thank faculty members at Shibaura Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo for helping arrange for Japanese students to complete the study. Specifically, we thank professors Y. Ito, H. Manabe, and K. Hidaka from Shibaura Institute of Technology and professor Y. Tsuji from the University of Tokyo.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgements. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OISE-1854255. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. We thank faculty members at Shibaura Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo for helping arrange for Japanese students to complete the study. Specifically, we thank professors Y. Ito, H. Manabe, and K. Hidaka from Shibaura Institute of Technology and professor Y. Tsuji from the University of Tokyo.
Funding Information:
Building on the prior research described in the previous section, this paper reports on work, supported by a United States National Science Foundation (NSF) International Research Experiences for Undergraduates (IRES) grant, to gain a deeper understanding of the role that kawaii plays in fostering positive human response to, and acceptance of, robotic gadgets across cultures. More information about the goals of our grant-supported project may be found in [15].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - We report on a cross-cultural collaborative project between students and faculty at DePauw University in the United States and Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan that used cross-cultural teams to design and evaluate robotic gadgets to gain a deeper understanding of the role that kawaii (Japanese cuteness) plays in fostering positive human response to, and acceptance of, these devices across cultures. Two cross-cultural design teams used Unity and C# to design and implement prototypes of virtual robotic gadgets as well as virtual environments for the robots to interact in. One team designed a virtual train station as well as robotic gadgets to operate in the station. The other team designed a virtual university campus as well as robotic gadgets that operated in that environment. Two versions of each robotic gadget were designed, such that the two versions differed with respect to one kawaii attribute (shape, size, etc.) Using these robots, we conducted a formal study that compared perceptions of kawaii robots between American college students and Japanese college students, as well as across genders. The findings revealed that there was not much difference in perception of kawaii across cultures and genders. Furthermore, the study shows that designing a robot to be more kawaii/cute appears to positively influence human preference for being around the robot. This study will inform our long-term goal of designing robots that are appealing across gender and culture.
AB - We report on a cross-cultural collaborative project between students and faculty at DePauw University in the United States and Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan that used cross-cultural teams to design and evaluate robotic gadgets to gain a deeper understanding of the role that kawaii (Japanese cuteness) plays in fostering positive human response to, and acceptance of, these devices across cultures. Two cross-cultural design teams used Unity and C# to design and implement prototypes of virtual robotic gadgets as well as virtual environments for the robots to interact in. One team designed a virtual train station as well as robotic gadgets to operate in the station. The other team designed a virtual university campus as well as robotic gadgets that operated in that environment. Two versions of each robotic gadget were designed, such that the two versions differed with respect to one kawaii attribute (shape, size, etc.) Using these robots, we conducted a formal study that compared perceptions of kawaii robots between American college students and Japanese college students, as well as across genders. The findings revealed that there was not much difference in perception of kawaii across cultures and genders. Furthermore, the study shows that designing a robot to be more kawaii/cute appears to positively influence human preference for being around the robot. This study will inform our long-term goal of designing robots that are appealing across gender and culture.
KW - Cross-cultural design
KW - Human-robot interaction
KW - Kawaii
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112105574&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85112105574&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-77080-8_26
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-77080-8_26
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85112105574
SN - 9783030770792
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 319
EP - 334
BT - Cross-Cultural Design. Applications in Cultural Heritage, Tourism, Autonomous Vehicles, and Intelligent Agents - 13th International Conference, CCD 2021, Held as Part of the 23rd HCI International Conference, HCII 2021, Proceedings
A2 - Rau, Pei-Luen Patrick
PB - Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
T2 - 13th International Conference on Cross-Cultural Design, CCD 2021, Held as Part of the 23rd HCI International Conference, HCII 2021
Y2 - 24 July 2021 through 29 July 2021
ER -