arXiv subjects

Tram Thi Minh Tran

Publications and source records attributed to Tram Thi Minh Tran.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Fostering Design-Policy Collaboration through Contestation: An Adversarial Futuring Method

Emerging technologies introduce sociotechnical tensions that call for closer collaboration between technology design and policy. In this work, we introduce Design-Policy Adversarial Futuring, a scenario-based workshop method that supports design-policy engagement by structuring contestation between design and policy perspectives. We report on a workshop conducted in the autonomous mobility domain with 12 HCI researchers, used to explore and demonstrate the method in practice. The workshop illustrates how the adversarial futuring method can surface shifting harms, translate policy abstractions into situated use, and legitimise extreme ideas while maintaining grounded policy reasoning. This work contributes a reusable, exploratory method for supporting HCI-policy collaboration through contestation, which can be adapted across emerging technological domains.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Probing More-Than-Human Representation in Crisis Resilience Planning: An HCI Researcher Perspective

Crisis resilience planning raises urgent questions about how to include non-human species and ecological systems in participatory processes, which remain largely human-centred. This paper reports on a workshop with HCI researchers examining how more-than-human representation is approached in crisis contexts. The workshop combined scenario-based discussion with two design probes -- a voice-based conversational agent and an immersive embodied prototype -- to support sustained discussion of how emerging technologies shape engagement with non-human perspectives. Participants focused not on system usability, but on deliberating representational choices, such as voice, embodiment, and realism, and their potential role within participatory planning processes. The findings suggest that giving 'voice' to non-humans is not a neutral act of translation, but a design challenge that introduces tensions between legitimacy, authority, and authenticity. This paper provides empirical insight into how HCI researchers conceptualise more-than-human representation and positions crisis resilience planning as a critical site for examining AI- and immersion-mediated representation.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Rethinking External Communication of Autonomous Vehicles: Is the Field Converging, Diverging, or Stalling?

As autonomous vehicles enter public spaces, external human-machine interfaces are proposed to support communication with external road users. A decade of research has produced hundreds of studies and reviews, yet it remains unclear whether the field is converging on shared principles or diverging across approaches. We present a multi-dimensional analysis of 620 publications, complemented by industry deployments and regulatory documents, to track research evolution and identify convergence. The analysis reveals several field-level patterns. First, convergence on a safety-first core: simple visual cues that clarify intent. Second, sustained divergence in necessity and implementation. Third, a progressive filtering funnel: broad exploration in research and concepts narrows in deployment and is codified by regulation into a minimal set of permitted signals. These insights point to a shift in emphasis for future work, from producing new prototypes toward consolidating evidence, clarifying points of contention, and developing frameworks that can adapt across contexts.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Envisioning Audio Augmented Reality in Everyday Life

While visual augmentation dominates the augmented reality landscape, devices like Meta Ray-Ban audio smart glasses signal growing industry movement toward audio augmented reality (AAR). Hearing is a primary channel for sensing context, anticipating change, and navigating social space, yet AAR's everyday potential remains underexplored. We address this gap through a collaborative autoethnography (N=5, authoring) and an online survey (N=74). We identify ten roles for AAR, grouped into three categories: task- and utility-oriented, emotional and social, and perceptual collaborator. These roles are further layered with a rhythmic and embodied collaborator framing, mapping them onto micro-, meso-, and macro-rhythms of everyday life. Our analysis surfaces nuanced tensions, such as blocking distractions without erasing social presence, highlighting the need for context-aware design. This paper contributes a foundational and forward-looking framework for AAR in everyday life, providing design groundwork for systems attuned to daily routines, sensory engagement, and social expectations.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Exploring the Impacts of Background Noise on Auditory Stimuli of Audio-Visual eHMIs for Hearing, Deaf, and Hard-of-Hearing People

External Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) have been proposed to enhance communication between automated vehicles (AVs) and pedestrians, with growing interest in multi-modal designs such as audio-visual eHMIs. Just as poor lighting can impair visual cues, a loud background noise may mask the auditory stimuli. However, its effects within these systems have not been examined, and little is known about how pedestrians -- particularly Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) people -- perceive different types of auditory stimuli. We conducted a virtual reality study (Hearing N=25, DHH N=11) to examine the effects of background noise (quiet and loud) on auditory stimuli (baseline, bell, speech) within an audio-visual eHMI. Results revealed that: (1) Crossing experiences of DHH pedestrians significantly differ from Hearing pedestrians. (2) Loud background noise adversely affects pedestrians' crossing experiences. (3) Providing an additional auditory eHMI (bell/speech) improves crossing experiences. We outlined four practical implications for future eHMI design and research.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Feel the Presence: The Effects of Haptic Sensation on VR-Based Human-Robot Interaction

Virtual reality (VR) has been increasingly utilised as a simulation tool for human-robot interaction (HRI) studies due to its ability to facilitate fast and flexible prototyping. Despite efforts to achieve high validity in VR studies, haptic sensation, an essential sensory modality for perception and a critical factor in enhancing VR realism, is often absent from these experiments. Studying an interactive robot help-seeking scenario, we used a VR simulation with haptic gloves that provide highly realistic tactile and force feedback to examine the effects of haptic sensation on VR-based HRI. We compared participants' sense of presence and their assessments of the robot to a traditional setup using hand controllers. Our results indicate that haptic sensation enhanced participants' social and self-presence in VR and fostered more diverse and natural bodily engagement. Additionally, haptic sensations significantly influenced participants' affective-related perceptions of the robot. Our study provides insights to guide HRI researchers in building VR-based simulations that better align with their study contexts and objectives.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

The UnScripted Trip: Fostering Policy Discussion on Future Human-Vehicle Collaboration in Autonomous Driving Through Design-Oriented Methods

The rapid advancement of autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies is fundamentally reshaping paradigms of human-vehicle collaboration, raising not only an urgent need for innovative design solutions but also for policies that address corresponding broader tensions in society. To bridge the gap between HCI research and policy making, this workshop will bring together researchers and practitioners in the automotive community to explore AV policy directions through collaborative speculation on the future of AVs. We designed The UnScripted Trip, a card game rooted in fictional narratives of autonomous mobility, to surface tensions around human-vehicle collaboration in future AV scenarios and to provoke critical reflections on design solutions and policy directions. Our goal is to provide an engaging, participatory space and method for automotive researchers, designers, and industry practitioners to collectively explore and shape the future of human-vehicle collaboration and its policy implications.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Quo-Vadis Multi-Agent Automotive Research? Insights from a Participatory Workshop and Questionnaire

The transition to mixed-traffic environments that involve automated vehicles, manually operated vehicles, and vulnerable road users presents new challenges for human-centered automotive research. Despite this, most studies in the domain focus on single-agent interactions. This paper reports on a participatory workshop (N = 15) and a questionnaire (N = 19) conducted during the AutomotiveUI '24 conference to explore the state of multi-agent automotive research. The participants discussed methodological challenges and opportunities in real-world settings, simulations, and computational modeling. Key findings reveal that while the value of multi-agent approaches is widely recognized, practical and technical barriers hinder their implementation. The study highlights the need for interdisciplinary methods, better tools, and simulation environments that support scalable, realistic, and ethically informed multi-agent research.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Towards Adaptive External Communication in Autonomous Vehicles: A Conceptual Design Framework

External Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) are key to facilitating interaction between autonomous vehicles and external road actors, yet most remain reactive and do not account for scalability and inclusivity. This paper introduces a conceptual design framework for adaptive eHMIs-interfaces that dynamically adjust communication as road actors vary and context shifts. Using the cyber-physical system as a structuring lens, the framework comprises three layers: Input (what the system detects), Processing (how the system decides), and Output (how the system communicates). Developed through theory-led abstraction and expert discussion, the framework helps researchers and designers think systematically about adaptive eHMIs and provides a structured tool to design, analyse, and assess adaptive communication strategies. We show how such systems may resolve longstanding limitations in eHMI research while raising new ethical and technical considerations.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Understanding Pedestrian Gesture Misrecognition: Insights from Vision-Language Model Reasoning

Pedestrian gestures play an important role in traffic communication, particularly in interactions with autonomous vehicles (AVs), yet their subtle, ambiguous, and context-dependent nature poses persistent challenges for machine interpretation. This study investigates these challenges by using GPT-4V, a vision-language model, not as a performance benchmark but as a diagnostic tool to reveal patterns and causes of gesture misrecognition. We analysed a public dataset of pedestrian-vehicle interactions, combining manual video review with thematic analysis of the model's qualitative reasoning. This dual approach surfaced recurring factors influencing misrecognition, including gesture visibility, pedestrian behaviour, interaction context, and environmental conditions. The findings suggest practical considerations for gesture design, including the value of salience and contextual redundancy, and highlight opportunities to improve AV recognition systems through richer context modelling and uncertainty-aware interpretations. While centred on AV-pedestrian interaction, the method and insights are applicable to other domains where machines interpret human gestures, such as wearable AR and assistive technologies.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Uncertainty on Display: The Effects of Communicating Confidence Cues in Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interactions

Uncertainty is an inherent aspect of autonomous vehicle (AV) decision-making, yet it is rarely communicated to pedestrians, which hinders transparency. This study investigates how AV uncertainty can be conveyed through two approaches: explicit communication (confidence percentage displays) and implicit communication (vehicle motion cues), across different confidence levels (high and low). Through a within-subject VR experiment (N=26), we evaluated these approaches in a crossing scenario, assessing interface qualities (visibility and intuitiveness), how well the information conveyed the vehicle's level of confidence, and their impact on participants' perceived safety, trust, and user experience. Our results show that explicit communication is more effective and preferred for conveying uncertainty, enhancing safety, trust, and user experience. Conversely, implicit communication introduces ambiguity, especially when AV confidence is low. This research provides empirical insights into how uncertainty communication shapes pedestrian interpretation of AV behaviour and offer design guidance for external interfaces that integrate uncertainty as a communicative element.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Animal Interaction with Autonomous Mobility Systems: Designing for Multi-Species Coexistence

Autonomous mobility systems increasingly operate in environments shared with animals, from urban pets to wildlife. However, their design has largely focused on human interaction, with limited understanding of how non-human species perceive, respond to, or are affected by these systems. Motivated by research in Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) and more-than-human design, this study investigates animal interactions with autonomous mobility through a multi-method approach combining a scoping review (45 articles), online ethnography (39 YouTube videos and 11 Reddit discussions), and expert interviews (8 participants). Our analysis surfaces five key areas of concern: Physical Impact (e.g., collisions, failures to detect), Behavioural Effects (e.g., avoidance, stress), Accessibility Concerns (particularly for service animals), Ethics and Regulations, and Urban Disturbance. We conclude with design and policy directions aimed at supporting multispecies coexistence in the age of autonomous systems. This work underscores the importance of incorporating non-human perspectives to ensure safer, more inclusive futures for all species.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Enhancing Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction in Shared Spaces: The Impact of Intended Path-Projection

External Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) are critical for seamless interactions between autonomous vehicles (AVs) and pedestrians in shared spaces. However, they often struggle to adapt to these environments, where pedestrian movement is fluid and right-of-way is ambiguous. To address these challenges, we propose PaveFlow, an eHMI that projects the AV's intended path onto the ground in real time, providing continuous spatial information rather than a binary stop/go signal. Through a VR study (N=18), we evaluated PaveFlow's effectiveness under two AV density conditions (single vs. multiple AVs) and a baseline condition without PaveFlow. The results showed that PaveFlow significantly improved pedestrian perception of safety, trust, and user experience while reducing cognitive workload. This performance remained consistent across both single and multiple AV conditions, despite persistent tensions in priority negotiation. These findings suggest that path projection enhances eHMI transparency by offering richer movement cues, which may better support AV-pedestrian interaction in shared spaces.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

From Everyday Technologies to Augmented Reality: An Autoethnographic Study of Presence and Engagement

Digital technologies are reshaping how people experience their surroundings, often pulling focus toward virtual spaces and making it harder to stay present and engaged. Wearable augmented reality (AR), by embedding digital information into the physical world, may further immerse users in digital layers. Yet paradoxically, it also holds the potential to support presence and engagement. To explore this possibility, this study adopts an autoethnographic approach, providing a first-person perspective on how everyday technologies shape real-world engagement. Over four weeks, 20 experiences were documented, capturing interactions with phones, laptops, and fitness trackers in various contexts. The findings reveal nuanced patterns of technology use and propose design implications for wearable AR, emphasising its potential for personalised, context-aware interventions that support meaningful real-world connection. This work contributes to the discourse on digital well-being, suggesting that wearable AR can evolve beyond digital augmentation to help users reconnect with their surroundings.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Peek into the `White-Box': A Field Study on Bystander Engagement with Urban Robot Uncertainty

Uncertainty inherently exists in the autonomous decision-making process of robots. Involving humans in resolving this uncertainty not only helps robots mitigate it but is also crucial for improving human-robot interactions. However, in public urban spaces filled with unpredictability, robots often face heightened uncertainty without direct human collaborators. This study investigates how robots can engage bystanders for assistance in public spaces when encountering uncertainty and examines how these interactions impact bystanders' perceptions and attitudes towards robots. We designed and tested a speculative `peephole' concept that engages bystanders in resolving urban robot uncertainty. Our design is guided by considerations of non-intrusiveness and eliciting initiative in an implicit manner, considering bystanders' unique role as non-obligated participants in relation to urban robots. Drawing from field study findings, we highlight the potential of involving bystanders to mitigate urban robots' technological imperfections to both address operational challenges and foster public acceptance of urban robots. Furthermore, we offer design implications to encourage bystanders' involvement in mitigating the imperfections.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

Doraemon's Gadget Lab: Unpacking Human Needs and Interaction Design in Speculative Technology

Speculative technologies in science fiction have long inspired advancements in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Doraemon, a Japanese manga featuring a robotic cat from the 22nd century, presents an extensive collection of futuristic gadgets-an underexplored source of speculative technologies. This study systematically analyses 379 of these gadgets, categorising them into 33 subcategories within 10 high-level groupings, to examine the fundamental human needs they address, their parallels to contemporary technologies, and their potential insights for HCI design. The findings reveal that while human needs remain constant, the ways in which technology fulfils them differ. Doraemon's gadgets emphasise tangible, single-purpose interactions with built-in reversibility, contrasting with the increasing complexity and software-driven nature of modern systems. By examining these speculative technologies, this study highlights alternative interaction paradigms that challenge current HCI trends and offer inspiration for future user-centred innovation.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Wearable AR in Everyday Contexts: Insights from a Digital Ethnography of YouTube Videos

With growing investment in consumer augmented reality (AR) headsets and glasses, wearable AR is moving from niche applications to everyday use. However, current research primarily examines AR in controlled settings, offering limited insights into its use in real-world daily life. To address this gap, we adopt a digital ethnographic approach, analysing 27 hours of 112 YouTube videos featuring early adopters. These videos capture usage ranging from continuous periods of hours to intermittent use over weeks and months. Our analysis shows that currently, wearable AR is primarily used for media consumption and gaming. While productivity is a desired use case, frequent use is constrained by current hardware limitations and the nascent application ecosystem. Users seek continuity in their digital experience, desiring functionalities similar to those on smartphones, tablets, or computers. We propose implications for everyday AR development that promote adoption while ensuring safe, ethical, and socially-aware integration into daily life.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

Robots in the Wild: Contextually-Adaptive Human-Robot Interactions in Urban Public Environments

The increasing transition of human-robot interaction (HRI) context from controlled settings to dynamic, real-world public environments calls for enhanced adaptability in robotic systems. This can go beyond algorithmic navigation or traditional HRI strategies in structured settings, requiring the ability to navigate complex public urban systems containing multifaceted dynamics and various socio-technical needs. Therefore, our proposed workshop seeks to extend the boundaries of adaptive HRI research beyond predictable, semi-structured contexts and highlight opportunities for adaptable robot interactions in urban public environments. This half-day workshop aims to explore design opportunities and challenges in creating contextually-adaptive HRI within these spaces and establish a network of interested parties within the OzCHI research community. By fostering ongoing discussions, sharing of insights, and collaborations, we aim to catalyse future research that empowers robots to navigate the inherent uncertainties and complexities of real-world public interactions.

cs.RO↗