Animated Public Furniture as an Interaction Mediator: Engaging Passersby In-the-Wild with Robotic Benches

Paper Title

Animated Public Furniture as an Interaction Mediator: Engaging Passersby In-the-Wild with Robotic Benches

Publication Info

• Topic area: Interaction design and robotic furniture in urban public spaces
• Keywords: Robotic furniture, urban HCI, public space, social interaction, spatial engagement, affordances, in-the-wild study, gestural design, public infrastructure, interaction mediation

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing research on robotic furniture has primarily focused on indoor settings, leaving a gap in understanding how such systems can mediate social and spatial engagement in outdoor public spaces. Current urban HCI interventions often rely on digital displays, which may not fully integrate with the socio-spatial context.
• Significance: Understanding how robotic furniture can mediate interactions in public spaces could transform mundane urban infrastructure into interactive artefacts, fostering social connections and spatial exploration.
• Motivation and related work: Prior studies have shown that robotic furniture can influence social interactions and spatial engagement through gestures, but these have been limited to private or semi-private environments. Recent work on urban robots highlights their potential to blend into public spaces, yet their role in mediating socio-spatial dynamics remains underexplored. This paper builds on these insights to investigate robotic furniture in outdoor public contexts.

Solution

• Proposed approach: The study introduces mobile robotic benches designed to mediate socio-spatial engagement in public spaces through gestural sequences that activate, redistribute, and settle engagement.
• Novelty:
  1. First documented in-the-wild deployment of robotic benches in a public setting.
  2. Empirical evidence on how robotic furniture impacts passersby’s engagement with public spaces.
  3. Introduction of the Affordance Transition Model (ATM) to describe how robotic furniture transitions between robotic, spatial, and infrastructural affordances.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Iterative design process including field observations, a lab-based design workshop, and an in-situ trial.
  • Deployment of three robotic benches in a semi-outdoor university library arcade using a Wizard-of-Oz approach.
  • Design of gestural sequences to attract attention, guide spatial exploration, and encourage social interaction.
  • Data collection through video recordings, semi-structured interviews (n=55 groups, 148 participants), and thematic analysis.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Robotic benches attracted attention in 84.7% of cases, with 33.7% of passersby sitting on them.
  • Gestures redirected attention to an overlooked sculpture, leading to its discovery by 20.4% of participants.
  • Three affordances were identified: robotic (capturing attention), spatial (guiding exploration), and infrastructural (settling as furniture).
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Unlike static urban infrastructure or digital displays, robotic benches dynamically mediated attention and engagement through motion and spatial integration.
  • Gestures subtly guided exploration without overwhelming the socio-spatial context, aligning with principles of calm technology.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Conducted over 26 hours across five days in a semi-outdoor library arcade.
  • Data included 98 triggered interactions, video recordings, and interviews.
  • Analysis revealed patterns of engagement (e.g., discovery, active, passive) and interpretive frames (e.g., robotic intention, spatial cues).
• Limitations and future work:
  • Single-site deployment limits generalisability; future studies should explore diverse urban settings.
  • Short-term study focused on first encounters; longitudinal research is needed to understand long-term habituation.
  • Potential to extend the Affordance Transition Model to other types of public infrastructure.

Summary

This paper explores how robotic public furniture can mediate social and spatial engagement in public spaces through an iterative design process and in-the-wild deployment of robotic benches. Findings demonstrate that robotic benches activate curiosity, guide spatial exploration, and eventually settle as part of the urban infrastructure. The proposed Affordance Transition Model (ATM) conceptualises how robotic furniture transitions between robotic, spatial, and infrastructural affordances, enabling dynamic and context-sensitive engagement. This work bridges robotic furniture and urban HCI, offering insights for designing interactive public infrastructure that fosters meaningful human experiences.