Julie
Carpenter

Bio

I've been asked on more than one occasion how I took a path from Film, Television & Radio theory to Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). Frankly, the connection to me seems very clear -- its all about human communication and interaction (development and use of, as well as responses to) electronic mediums. Munsterberg [1] has said that the arrangement of events in film correlates with the way we think, and I believe there is truth in that theory, and explains -- for me -- my initial attraction to film as a medium for communication. My academic and professional background and interests are very complementary.

As an undergraduate, I was inspired by the work of Joanne Cantor, University of Wisconsin - Madison, who specializes in theory surrounding mass media and youth. Later, as a graduate student studying Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), I discovered the work of Byron Reeves and Clifford I. Nass. I was (and am) very intrigued with their theories as described in The Media Equation [2]. In a nutshell, Reeves & Nass concluded that people interact with new media as real people. In particular, I appreciate the practical potential applications of their theories towards building more naturalistic media models.

Graduate work and my professional experience in Web development dovetailed -- on the job, I did usability testing of sites and Web-based software and applications -- and I repeatedly observed anecdotal "personal" relationships and reactions to information presented on a computer screen. My academic interests evolved from human interaction with Web-based Embodied Conversational Agents (ECA) to human interaction with embodied Socially Intelligent Agents (SIA), especially robots. To me, social humanoid robots will offer the most interesting proving and testing ground for media theories. For the purpose of this bio, I'll use Kerstin Dautenhahn's [3] operationalization of the term "social robotics":

1. Agents are embodied.
2. Agents are individuals, part of a heterogeneous group (the members identical but have individual features, like different sensors, and mechanics, etc).
3. Agents can recognize and interact with each other and engage interactions as a prerequisite to developing social relationships.
4. Agents have ‘histories’; they perceive and interpret the world their own experiences.
5. Agents can explicitly communicate with each other. Communication grounded in imitation and interactions between agents, meaning transferred between two agents by sharing the same context.
6. The individual agent contributes to the dynamics of the whole society as well as the society contributing to the individual.

My primary research goal is to investigate robot-human attachment issues, focusing on how humanoid design of robots affects users in stressful conditions, especially in dyad teamwork or collaborative situations.

The current state of android development is moving quickly, yet human-centered research in human-robot interaction (HRI) is still emerging. This void in humanoid robot development may have an enormous impact on android effectiveness in situations such as medical, defense, space exploration or humanitarian relief use and training scenarios. Building androids without applying human-centered development practices could also have a heavy ethical cost given the roles these robots will play. My research will be an investigation of issues surrounding human-robot teamwork, stress, learning and communication, and then developing practical applications to promote successful human-robot teamwork.

On a side note, I'm always interested in opportunities for collaboration; feel free to contact me. Thanks for reading this far. :)