• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.469-489
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• 2021

This study explores consumers' responses to socially assistive robotics by using text-mining method focusing on Companion Pets from Hasbro as it gives emotional support. We conducted text frequency analysis, LDA analysis using R programming. The key findings are 1)the most frequently used words the mimicry of living pets and the appearance of companion pets, 2)the five topics were derived from the LDA analysis and classified keywords in each topic split between positive and negative, 3)user, product, environment affect the interaction between consumer and companion pets, 4)consumers who have difficulty in cognition and physical conditions use companion pets to replace living pets. This study provides an understanding of consumer responses in companion pets and gives practical implications that may improve the efficacy of usage for consumers and understand the companion robot, which provides emotional support in COVID-19.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.61-69
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• 2015

In this paper, we propose and examine the feasibility of the robot-assisted behavioral intervention system so as to strengthen positive response of the children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) for learning social skills. Based on well-known behavioral treatment protocols, the robot offers therapeutic training elements of eye contact and emotion reading respectively in child-robot interaction, and it subsequently accomplishes pre-allocated meaningful acts by estimating the level of children's reactivity from reliable recognition modules, as a coping strategy. Furthermore, for the purpose of labor saving and attracting children's interest, we implemented the robotic stimulation configuration with semi-autonomous actions capable of inducing intimacy and tension to children in instructional trials. From these configurations, by evaluating the ability of recognizing human activity as well as by showing improved reactivity for social training, we verified that the proposed system has some positive effects on social development, targeted for preschoolers who have a high functioning level.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1427-1434
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• 2021

In this paper, we propose a psychological state estimation process that computes children's attention and tension in response to training stimuli. Joint attention was adopted as the training stimulus required for behavioral intervention, and the Discrete trial training (DTT) technique was applied as the training protocol. Three types of training stimulation contents are composed to check the user's attention and tension level and provided mounted on a character-shaped tabletop robot. Then, the gaze response to the user's training stimulus is estimated with the vision-based head pose recognition and geometrical calculation model, and the nervous system response is analyzed using the PPG and GSR bio-signals using heart rate variability(HRV) and histogram techniques. Through experiments using robots, it was confirmed that the psychological response of users to training contents on joint attention could be quantified.