Synthetic Emotions Bicycle (SEB)Building a Human-Bicycle Emotional Bond

Through Abstract Expression of Affect

Tamara V. Pinos CisnerosGraduation Project

Media Technology MSc Programme

Thesis advisors: Maarten H. Lamers, Joost Broekens

Introduction• Humans develop emotional bonds,

even with objects (including robots).

• The need for social robots has given the impetus to create robots that can express emotions.

“I don’t know what I would do without my <object>...”

Kismet - MIT

Research Question

Can objects with emotions represented as abstract shapes help

improve the emotional bond between them and their owners?

Related work• Emotional Model:

• Dimensional Theories - Mehrabian’s: Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance

• Homeostasis: equilibrium of physiological elements.

“Needs and Drives”

P-P

-A

D

-D

A

Homeostatic

Overwhelmed

Under-stimulated

Related work• Affect Expression

• Realistic • Iconic • Abstract

LeonardoPersonal Robots Group

MIT

Anthropomorphic

EinsteinHanson Robotics

de Roij et al. 2013

Betella et al. 2013

Related work• Affectional bond

• Bond: the attraction that one individual has for another individual. (John Bowlby)

• Bonds develop when an individual realizes that in order to reduce a drive or need, another object (a material object or a living being) is necessary.

Utility

Appearance

Symbolic meaning

Users’ experience

• Key components to create emotional bonds from a product design approach:

Interesting and Fun!

usable bicycle

appealing appearance

expression of its emotions

(Norman, D.A. 2007, Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things.)

Similar ProjectsCars Bicycles

Detect the affective state of the driver: speech recognition, stress detectors, facial expression recognition

Sensors on the bicycle,tweets its feelings

AIDA

SEB, the bike

Eungi Kim - Designer

or the steel horse...

• Mountain bike• Race bike• Omafiets (Grandma bike)• Student bike• Family bike• Kids bike

Personalities

A metaphor of a Horse• Means of transportation• Require the care of its owner• Similar shapes• Have attributed personalities

SEB, the bikeHow SEB feels Needs

SEB, the bikeVariables Sensors

Damage (avoid fall) Accelerometer

Temperature Temperature sensor

Shelter Photoresistor (LDR) and Temperature/Humidity sensor

Road conditions Accelerometer

Maintenance Self assessment button

Balance Accelerometer

Ascend/Descend Accelerometer

Speed Speedometer

Light/Darkness LDR

Contact Stroke sensor

Locked Speedometer and Optical Transistor

NeedsAffect on

HomeostasisAffect on no Homeostasis

Physical Integrity Serenity, Joy Annoyance, Fear, Anger

Flow Joy Fear

Speed Happy Fear (too fast)Annoyance (too slow)

Relationship Serenity, Joy, Trust Fear, Sad

SEB, the bike

NeedMin.

ValueMax. Value

Optimal Value

Physical Integrity 0 10 7

Flow 0 4 2.5

Speed 0 40 15

Relationship 0 10 5.5

Variable Action Effect No action

Maintenance Press the button + 2 -0.00001

Contact-Attention

Touch the stroke sensor

+ 0.25 -0.0001

Locked Lock the bike + 2 -0.001

Light/Darkness

light of the environment (outside/inside)

+ 0.0001 -0.001

For example: Need of Relationship

Ppi + Pf + Ps + Pr = PApi + Af + As + Ar = ADpi + Df + Ds + Dr = D

Abstract Expression

SEB, the bike

• Based on the previous research by (de Rooij, Broekens et al. 2013)

FactorFactorFactor

FeatureFeature P A D

ContourContour + + + - - - *

Asymmetry - - - -Asymmetry

Rot. + + +

SizeSize + + +

* rounded contour(pleasure) and angular contour (displeasure)

Abstract Expression

Tests and ResultsStatic evaluation

• Two experts assessed 20 images generated by the system. They defined the values of Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance in a scale of 1 - 5

Dimension Expert1 - System

Expert2 - System

Expert1 - Expert2

P 0.75** 0.80** 0.72**

A 0.76** 0.12 0.47*

D 0.12 0.26 0.71**

‘**’ denote a significance of p<0.005 and ‘*’ denote a significance of p<0.05

Correlations

Tests and ResultsDynamic evaluation

• Users: n=6 (3 females, 3 males)

• Ages: 20 - 31

• Different nationalities

• Users had the bike for 24h while performing their normal activities

• Actual time of riding between 20mins - 1h

• Users filled a Pre-questionnaire, a Post-questionnaire and a form for events, comments after the test were also noted How did the users viewed SEB, its emotions

and the personality traits attributed to him?How connected did they feel with SEB?

Tests and ResultsDynamic evaluation

Personality traits

with its correspondent error bar with 95% CI, 1 means that participants did not link the bike with the theme at all. 5 means that participants completely link the bike with the theme.

Users’ impression of the bicycle

Box-plots of personalities identified by the users with a 95% Confidence interval for mean. Utility Appearance

Symbolic meaning Users’ experience

Test and Results

• Users found SEB interesting, enjoyable, pleasant and fascinating

Users’ responses to Q8: “It sometimes felt as if SEB was really communicating with me” vs. Q14: “I have a bond with SEB”

User’s responses to Q4: “I find SEB enjoyable”, Q5: “I find SEB fascinating”, Q6*:”I find SEB annoying”, Q7*: “I find SEB boring”. The scores for the statements with ‘*’ have been inverted to change keep all results in the same direction. Error bars with 95% CI.

Test and Results

• Time of testing too small

• Complexity of the emotional space. What triggered what?

Affective word/phrase

Amount of testers

Petting 4

Take care 2

Worried about it's feelings

2

Make SEB happy 3

Tamagochi 1

I liked it 5

SEB 3

“SEB was not happy and I don’t know why...”

During 5-10mins conversation after the test.

Conclusions• More users and a longer amount of

interaction with the bicycle could have provided a deeper understanding of the system

• These results show that it is feasible to enhance an emotional bond with an object by interacting with it

• The use of abstract expressions of affect can be a viable way to communicate the emotions of an object

• Although a representations model based on Pleasure and Arousal can represent simple emotions an improved version including Dominance could contribute further in the analysis of abstract expression of affect.

Utility

Appearance

Users’ experience

Symbolic meaning

Future Work

• Are there benefits of feeling emotionally connected to your bicycle or any other given object? ✤ better care

✤ incentive to exercise more (exergaming)

✤ incentive to increase the amount of users in other countries

• Would this method be more efficient than other types of expression of affect? ✤ use of animated visual motifs

✤ use of emoticons