Robots with projectors: An alternative to anthropomorphic HRI

Current forms of Human Robot Interaction (HRI) pursue mostly anthropomorphism and direct interaction. That is, the interaction paradigm is based on imitating how “people” interact with one another (e.g. using spoken language, gestures, facial expression, etc.). However, “direct” interaction/contact with the “robot,” often causes significant inconvenience and usability problems. In this paper, we present an alternative to the anthropomorphic interface using a projected display and indirect, yet already familiar GUI based interaction. That is, the projector (on the moving robot) projects information on the nearby surface and provides a relatively large area through which indirect GUI based interaction can occur. As an instance of such an HRI paradigm, we present a moving robot kiosk that projects displays around itself and serve and interact with multiple people at once. We report our on-going development efforts and a pilot experimental study that compares it to the typical touch screen based direct HRI.