Arm-A-Dine

"Arm-A-Dine": Towards Understanding the Design of Playful Embodied Eating ExperiencesBACKGROUND: This research investigates how robotics tools can be combined with playful social dining systems, to create a mutually joyful feeding experience. CONTRIBUTION: This project offers "Arm-A-Dine!", an augmented social eating system, consisting of wearable robotic arms attached to diners' body for eating and serving food. Unlike the normal biological arm, whose actions are guided by one's own volition, in Arm-A-Dine, the movements of the third arm are controlled by the affective responses of the eating partner. By approaching the subject in this way, the research offers a tangible example of how we could potentially regulate both quantity and eating speed when we no longer control eating actions autonomously, and we allow the robotic technology to playfully subvert these actions. SIGNIFICANCE: This project creates a baseline study of how robotic technology can positively affect the social eating experience going beyond the current paradigm of assistive healthcare technology, where feeding process has been identified not only as a high source of stress for both caregivers and care-receivers but also an opportunity to motivate patients to eat, enjoy the food (Ford 1996). This project has the potential to be transferable across multiple social and family eating contexts, for example when trying someone else's dish or in a romantic relationship, where feeding is believed to facilitate bonding and empathy as inspired by the literature on mother-infant feeding (Eyer 1994). This work has already received 5 citations and was exhibited at prestigious venues such as ACM CHI PLAY 2018 and ACM UIST 2017. It also received wider media attention with stories on Digital Trends, Mashable, The Verge and IEEE Spectrum among others. It was selected for a student innovation award at the prestigious UIST 2017 and underpins further investigations in the discipline of HCI.‘Arm-A-Dine’：探索趣味性具身饮食体验的设计 背景：本研究探讨如何将机器人技术与趣味性社交用餐系统相结合，打造兼具互动性与愉悦感的共享喂食体验。 贡献：本项目推出“Arm-A-Dine!”这一增强型社交用餐系统，其核心为安装在用餐者身体上的可穿戴机械臂，可用于自主进食与为同伴传菜。与受使用者自身意愿支配的生物手臂不同，Arm-A-Dine的第三只机械臂的运动由用餐同伴的情感反应控制。通过该研究视角，本研究提供了一个具象化案例，展现了当我们不再自主控制进食动作、转而由机器人技术以趣味方式颠覆这些动作时，如何潜在地调控进食量与进食速度。 意义：本研究构建了一项基准性探索，旨在揭示机器人技术如何积极影响社交用餐体验，突破了当前辅助医疗技术的既有范式——在辅助医疗场景中，喂食过程不仅被证实是护理者与受护者双方的高压来源，同时也正如福特（Ford, 1996）的研究所述，是激励患者进食、享受食物的重要契机。本项目的应用场景可拓展至多种社交与家庭用餐情境，例如尝试他人菜品或处于亲密恋爱关系时，正如母婴喂食相关研究（Eyer, 1994）所揭示的，喂食行为被认为有助于增进情感联结与共情。该项研究已被引用5次，并在ACM CHI PLAY 2018、ACM UIST 2017等顶级学术会议展出。其还获得了Digital Trends、Mashable、The Verge及IEEE Spectrum等多家媒体的专题报道，并斩获UIST 2017年度学生创新奖，为人机交互（Human-Computer Interaction, HCI）领域的后续研究奠定了核心基础。