Miscellaneous

What happens when people walking down the street get stalked by a toy lawnmower? Are we terrorized or totally cool with that?

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A senior thesis, presented by Serena Booth to the Computer Science department of Harvard SEAS, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the subject of Computer Science.
Thesis advised by Prof. Radhika Nagpal, and read by Prof. Jim Waldo and Prof. Krzysztof Gajos.

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Can overtrust in robots compromise physical security? We conducted a series of experiments in which a robot positioned outside a secure-access student dormitory asked passersby to assist it to gain access. We found individual participants were comparably likely to assist the robot in exiting (40% assistance rate) as in entering (19%). When the robot was disguised as a food delivery agent for the fictional start-up Robot Grub, individuals were more likely to assist the robot in entering (76%). Groups of people were more likely than individuals to assist the robot in entering (71%). Lastly, we found participants who identified the robot as a bomb threat were just as likely to open the door (87%) as those who did not. Thus, we demonstrate that overtrust—the unfounded belief that the robot does not intend to deceive or carry risk—can represent a significant threat to physical security.

Serena Booth, James Tompkin, Krzysztof Z. Gajos, Jim Waldo, Hanspeter Pfister, and Radhika Nagpal. Piggybacking robots: Human-robot overtrust in university dormitory security. In Proceedings of HRI'17, 2017. To appear.

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Less than 100 years from now, robots will be friendly, useful participants in our homes and workplaces, predicts UBC mechanical engineering professor and robotics expert Elizabeth Croft.

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The design feature could improve interactions with robots by making many people feel like they're being looked at.

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Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) allows us to augment our lives and do what was unthinkable just a decade ago using personal computing devices and networked systems. Georgia Tech is a pioneering force in a new age of HCI, with research advances using creative new form factors and approaches by some of the field’s leading researchers, right here in Atlanta. Take a look at some of the people and work at the institute and how they are shaping the future of global HCI research.

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Combining machine learning with creative applications of sensors, Future Interfaces Group is trying to find the next ways we’ll interface with computers beyond our current modes of voice and touch. Key technologies whose interfaces are yet to be standardized include smartwatches, AR/VR, and the internet of things.

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