The following research projects are currently in progress. Take a look at my publications for information about previous projects.

Receiving Help from a Robot

When face to face, a help giver has contextual information that can be used to tailor communication. Current research on robotic helpers seeks to leverage these benefits of physically embodied interaction without acknowledging that receiving help is not always a positive experience. Help recipients may feel scrutinized, or they may feel the helper has taken control of their activity. My dissertation research examines negative byproducts of receiving help, testing whether help from a robot is perceived as evaluative or controlling.

Currently, I am comparing perceptions of different linguistic strategies when used by a human helper and a robotic helper. This work is based on my analyses of human help-giving communication. For example, I found that some help givers use an informal style of speech (“so actually you can just like ...”) that seems to soften the impact of their advice. A strategy like this may distance the speaker from an authoritative stance but could potentially imply uncertainty or difficulty in speech production. While an effective conversational strategy for people at times, it is not clear these perceptions would transfer to robot speakers.

Finding & Interpreting Online How-To Resources

Step-by-step instructions about how to do something, often called How-Tos, are growing rapidly on the internet. The availability of media like YouTube video and Flickr photostreams have made it easier for people to share knowledge with one another online, but help seekers still face challenges in finding and interpreting this content for their particular needs.

With colleagues at Intel and Yahoo! Research, I conducted interviews with creators and consumers of how-to information around craft and electronics projects. We found that interpreting online content was challenging for newcomers in a domain, yet, at the same time, the internet is a safe place to explore. The diversity of interaction styles online allowed these interview participants the flexibility to connect with others, when desired, and to remain anonymous, when desired. Currently, I am exploring the metaphors that people use to describe their online help-seeking activities, negotiated interactions that allow them to balance their emotional and information needs. (Photo credit: Becky Stern, sternlabs.org)