Attractive telepresence communication with movable and touchable display robot

Abstract

We propose an active display robot for tele-communication system combining 3-axis display arm manually controlled by touch input, and automatically controlled by human tracking. This system is designed to present distance change behavior between user and robot by implementing two types of user interaction during communication; 1) Providing robot's movement to follow the user who is far from or going to pass by the display robot, 2) providing touchable display to activate and manipulate the direction of the display during the user is sited in front of the display system. Both local and remote users use the same system to communicate, make user's attention to distanced user via the system. Manipulating the movable part of the display by the movement of the finger of the user's touch makes the display correspond to user's intention and attention. There are two advantages of the movable display by the operation of the user's touch. One is to enhance remote communication by making the display arm moving with touch operation. Second is to enable the transmission of non-verbal information through the operation of the display. We designed hardware and software associated with user behavior and user input via the display. It is expected that the system will solve that the problem of misunderstanding of remote device operation, then it contribute to intuitive operation. In order to evaluate how this system does contribute to intuitive operation, we conducted an assessment experiment by using Questionnaire of Likert scale and interview. We verified that the display can move in response to operator's touch input contribute to intuitive experience.