Introducing animatronics to HCI: Extending reality-based interaction

Abstract

As both software and hardware technologies have been improved during the past two decades, a number of interfaces have been developed by HCI researchers. As these researchers began to explore the next generation of interaction styles, it was inevitable that they use a lifelike robot (or animatronic) as the basis for interaction. However, the main use up to this point for animatronic technology had been "edutainment." Only recently was animatronic technology even considered for use as an interaction style. In this research, various interaction styles (conventional GUI, AR, 3D graphics, and introducing an animatronic user interface) were used to instruct users on a 3D construction task which was constant across the various styles. From this experiment the placement, if any, of animatronic technology in the realitybased interaction framework will become more apparent. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.