Ashkenazi, S. , Skantze, G., Stuart-Smith, J. and Foster, M. E. (2024) Goes to the Heart: Speaking the User’s Native Language. In: 19th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI), Boulder, Colorado, USA, 11-15 March 2024, pp. 214-218. ISBN 9798400703232 (doi: 10.1145/3610978.3640633)
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Abstract
We are developing a social robot to work alongside human support workers who help new arrivals in a country to navigate the necessary bureaucratic processes in that country. The ultimate goal is to develop a robot that can support refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. As a first step, we are targeting a less vulnerable population with similar support needs: international students in the University of Glasgow. As the target users are in a new country and may be in a state of stress when they seek support, forcing them to communicate in a foreign language will only fuel their anxiety, so a crucial aspect of the robot design is that it should speak the users' native language if at all possible. We provide a technical description of the robot hardware and software, and describe the user study that will shortly be carried out. At the end, we explain how we are engaging with refugee support organisations to extend the robot into one that can also support refugees and asylum seekers.
| Item Type: | Conference Proceedings |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | This work was supported by the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Socially Intelligent Artificial Agents, Grant Number EP/S02266X/1. |
| Keywords: | multilingualism, foreign language anxiety, human-robot interaction, social robotics, robots in public spaces. |
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Ashkenazi, Shaul and Stuart-Smith, Professor Jane and Foster, Dr Mary Ellen |
| Authors: | Ashkenazi, S., Skantze, G., Stuart-Smith, J., and Foster, M. E. |
| College/School: | College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science |
| ISBN: | 9798400703232 |
| Published Online: | 11 March 2024 |
| Copyright Holders: | © 2024 Copyright held by the owner/author(s) |
| First Published: | First published in HRI '24: Companion of the 2024 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction: 214-218 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced under a Creative Commons license |
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