Animated Public Furniture as an Interaction Mediator: Engaging Passersby In-the-Wild with Robotic Benches

Abstract

Urban HCI investigates how digital technologies shape human behaviour within the social, spatial, temporal dynamics of public space. Meanwhile, robotic furniture research demonstrates how the purposeful animation of mundane utilitarian elements can influence human behaviour in everyday contexts. Taken together, these strands highlight an untapped opportunity to investigate how animated public furniture could mediate social interaction in urban environments. In this paper, we present the design process and in-the-wild study of mobile robotic benches that reconfigure with a semi-outdoor public space. Our findings show that the gestural performance of the benches manifested three affordances perceived by passersby, they activated engagement as robots, redistributed engagement as spatial elements, and settled engagement as infrastructure. We proposed an Affordance Transition Model (ATM) describing how robotic furniture could proactively facilitate transition between these affordances to engage passersby. Our study bridges robotic furniture and urban HCI to activate human experience with the built environment purposefully.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Design process and study site. Left: observation notes and photographs from the design workshop. Middle: study site and setup with floor plan. Right: the robotic bench and gestural strategies probed during the trial.
• Figure 2: Socio-spatial activation gestural sequence. Left: bird’s-eye view of the gestural trajectory in relation to the sculpture and study site. Right: screenshots of the robotic benches’ gestural sequence, consisting of two parts: (1) a deictic gesture moving toward the two other benches, and (2) an architectonic gesture that subtly indexed the sculpture as a focal point.
• Figure 3: Instances of interactions with the robotic benches. A: Brief exploratory sitting; B: Taking a ride; C: Exploratory sitting transferring to dwelling; D: Avoiding movement; E: Lifting legs; F: Intervening
• Figure 4: Passersby’s serendipitous encounters with the sculpture prompted by the robotic bench. Top: a group noticed the bench and shifted attention to the sculpture. Bottom left: another group first examined the information plaque before turning to the sculpture. Bottom right: overview of passersby attention trajectories, beginning with passersby entering or exiting the space (1), noticing the moving bench (2) with later joined the other units (3), spilling attention over to scan the surroundings for cues (4), and then their attention either landed at the sculpture (5) or first to the information plaque (6) before bouncing back to the sculpture.
• Figure 5: Sequence of interaction showing how the bench prompted brief social exchanges between two groups.