EAGER: Augmenting Human Creativity Through Human-Robot Interaction

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Few would disagree about the importance of creativity in human lives. Science depends on the creative mind. So does the economic viability of nations today. The goal of this grant is to open up a new frontier in human-robot interaction whereby it becomes possible to augment human creativity through human-robot interaction. This possibility could emerge by embedding sophisticated search functions and AI software in a social robot, which then engages in dialog with the user, decides on key terms for a search, filters the results (based on unique and long-standing histories of the user), and decides which results to bring forward at specific junctions in the human-robot dialog. Intellectual Merit: There are four overarching goals: (1) To conceptualize the creativity domain and to generate creativity methods in human-robot interaction. (2) To develop human-robot interaction patterns that set up (a) people's prior social relationships with a social robot such that people are open to creating with the robot, and (b) the interactions with the robot for the creative process itself. (3) Piloting research toward fostering creativity in interaction with ATR's humanoid robot, Robovie. And (4) conducting a formal research study to test new forms of creativity with ATR's humanoid robot, Robovie. Broader Impacts: This research will (1) lead to the mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students; (2) broaden the participation of females in HCI; and (3) promote the transfer of expert knowledge from a leading Japanese laboratory to the United States. More broadly, (4) this new vision for HRI could be transformative insofar as over the next 3-10 years this form of human-robot interaction could provide an entirely new way that people generate new knowledge, and thereby help promote exponential growth in the sciences, as well as in some of the humanities.