Human-Centered Designed Robots are All Around Us

Robots are no longer only in outer space, in factory cages, or in our imaginations. We interact with robotic agents when withdrawing cash from ATMs, driving cars with anti-lock brakes, and tuning our thermostats. In the moment of those interactions with robotic agents, we behave in ways that do not necessarily align with the rational belief that robots are just plain machines. Through a combination of controlled experiments and field studies, we will explore ways that human and robotic agents come together, including how people interact with personal robots and how people interact through telepresence robots. We hope to explore topics and raise questions about the psychology of human-robot interaction and how we could invent a future of robotics that is human-centered by design.

Presenter(s)

With a background in Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Human-Computer Interaction, Leila Takayama examines human encounters with new technologies. Dr. Takayama completed her PhD in Communication at Stanford University in 2008, advised by Professor Clifford Nass. She also holds a PhD minor in Psychology from Stanford, a master's degree in Communication from Stanford, and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley (2003). During her graduate studies, she was a research assistant in the User Interface Research (UIR) group at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).