Who’s on First? The Impact of the Proactive Interaction on User Acceptance of the Robotized Object

Abstract

Due to advances in technology, various types of existing products can be robotized. The interaction design between the robotized objects which are the robotized products and users has become an emerging issue since how to interact affects user acceptance of the new products. Because the robots can perceive, recognize and assist the users, robotized objects can assist users by reading the context and guessing their intentions in advance, or can assist users in response to users' clear requests. In order to explore the effective interaction strategy of robotized object, we conduct 2 x 2 mixed-participant experiment. As a result, participants were more surprised by and felt positive emotion toward robotized objects with proactive interaction than with reactive interaction. In addition, the robotized object with proactive interaction was evaluated as more intelligent and easier to use than that with reactive interaction. The influence of interaction strategies on satisfaction of robotized objects was mediated by surprise and positive emotions. Furthermore, the robotized object with proactive interaction was evaluated as more positive when the user's intention was expressed only by action cue than when it was expressed by both verbal cue and action cue.