arXiv subjects

Yaxin Hu

Publications and source records attributed to Yaxin Hu.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Designing Robots to Support Parent-Child Connections: Opportunities Through Robot-Mediated Communication

The sense of family connectedness may support positive outcomes including individual well-being, resilience, and healthy family functioning. However, as technologies advance, they often replace human-human interactions instead of nurturing them. In this work, we investigate how robot-facilitated communication tools might instead create new opportunities for family connection. We conducted two studies with families with children aged 5-12. We first explored the design space through in-home technology probe sessions with six families. These probes inspired us to explore two key interaction design dimensions: the robot's behavior strategy (passive, reactive, proactive) and the mode of communication (synchronous, asynchronous). We then conducted a laboratory study with 20 families to examine how the two dimensions shaped parent-child interaction and connection. Our findings characterize how parents and children appropriated robot-mediated exchanges, the tensions they experienced around initiative, timing, and privacy, and the opportunities they envisioned for supporting everyday connectedness.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2026

How Well Can 3D Accessibility Guidelines Support XR Development? An Interview Study with XR Practitioners in Industry

While accessibility (a11y) guidelines exist for 3D games and virtual worlds, their applicability to extended reality (XR)'s unique interaction paradigms (e.g., spatial tracking, kinesthetic interactions) remains unexplored. XR practitioners need practical guidance to successfully implement a11y guidelines under real-world constraints. We present the first evaluation of existing 3D a11y guidelines applied to XR development through semi-structured interviews with 25 XR practitioners across diverse organization contexts. We assessed 20 commonly-agreed a11y guidelines from six major resources across visual, motor, cognitive, speech, and hearing domains, comparing practitioners' development practices against guideline applicability to XR. Our investigation reveals that guidelines can be highly effective when designed as transformation catalysts rather than compliance checklists, but fundamental mismatches exist between existing 3D guidelines and XR requirements, creating both implementation barriers and design gaps. This work provides foundational insights towards developing a11y guidelines and support tools that address XR's distinct characteristics.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

SurgMotion: A Video-Native Foundation Model for Universal Understanding of Surgical Videos

While foundation models have advanced surgical video analysis, current approaches rely predominantly on pixel-level reconstruction objectives that waste model capacity on low-level visual details, such as smoke, specular reflections, and fluid motion, rather than semantic structures essential for surgical understanding. We present SurgMotion, a video-native foundation model that shifts the learning paradigm from pixel-level reconstruction to latent motion prediction. Built on the Video Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture (V-JEPA), SurgMotion introduces three key technical innovations tailored to surgical videos: (1) motion-guided latent masked prediction to prioritize semantically meaningful regions, (2) spatiotemporal affinity self-distillation to enforce relational consistency, and (3) spatiotemporal feature diversity regularization (SFDR) to prevent representation collapse in texture-sparse surgical scenes. To enable large-scale pretraining, we curate SurgMotion-15M, the largest surgical video dataset to date, comprising 3,658 hours of video from 50 sources across 13 anatomical regions. Extensive experiments across 17 benchmarks demonstrate that SurgMotion significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods on surgical workflow recognition, achieving 14.6 percent improvement in F1 score on EgoSurgery and 10.3 percent on PitVis; on action triplet recognition with 39.54 percent mAP-IVT on CholecT50; as well as on skill assessment, polyp segmentation, and depth estimation. These results establish SurgMotion as a new standard for universal, motion-oriented surgical video understanding.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2026

Robot-Assisted Group Tours for Blind People

Group interactions are essential to social functioning, yet effective engagement relies on the ability to recognize and interpret visual cues, making such engagement a significant challenge for blind people. In this paper, we investigate how a mobile robot can support group interactions for blind people. We used the scenario of a guided tour with mixed-visual groups involving blind and sighted visitors. Based on insights from an interview study with blind people (n=5) and museum experts (n=5), we designed and prototyped a robotic system that supported blind visitors to join group tours. We conducted a field study in a science museum where each blind participant (n=8) joined a group tour with one guide and two sighted participants (n=8). Findings indicated users' sense of safety from the robot's navigational support, concerns in the group participation, and preferences for obtaining environmental information. We present design implications for future robotic systems to support blind people's mixed-visual group participation.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Whether We Care, How We Reason: The Dual Role of Anthropomorphism and Moral Foundations in Robot Abuse

As robots become increasingly integrated into daily life, understanding responses to robot mistreatment carries important ethical and design implications. This mixed-methods study (N = 201) examined how anthropomorphic levels and moral foundations shape reactions to robot abuse. Participants viewed videos depicting physical mistreatment of robots varying in humanness (Spider, Twofoot, Humanoid) and completed measures assessing moral foundations, anger, and social distance. Results revealed that anthropomorphism determines whether people extend moral consideration to robots, while moral foundations shape how they reason about such consideration. Qualitative analysis revealed distinct reasoning patterns: low-progressivism individuals employed character-based judgments, while high-progressivism individuals engaged in future-oriented moral deliberation. Findings offer implications for robot design and policy communication.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

I don't Want You to Die: A Shared Responsibility Framework for Safeguarding Child-Robot Companionship

Social robots like Moxie are designed to form strong emotional bonds with children, but their abrupt discontinuation can cause significant struggles and distress to children. When these services end, the resulting harm raises complex questions of who bears responsibility when children's emotional bonds are broken. Using the Moxie shutdown as a case study through a qualitative survey of 72 U.S. participants, our findings show that the responsibility is viewed as a shared duty across the robot company, parents, developers, and government. However, these attributions varied by political ideology and parental status of whether they have children. Participants' perceptions of whether the robot service should continue are highly polarized; supporters propose technical, financial, and governmental pathways for continuity, while opponents cite business realities and risks of unhealthy emotional dependency. Ultimately, this research contributes an empirically grounded shared responsibility framework for safeguarding child-robot companionship by detailing how accountability is distributed and contested, informing concrete design and policy implications to mitigate the emotional harm of robot discontinuation.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

Beyond the Uncanny Valley: A Mixed-Method Investigation of Anthropomorphism in Protective Responses to Robot Abuse

Robots with anthropomorphic features are increasingly shaping how humans perceive and morally engage with them. Our research investigates how different levels of anthropomorphism influence protective responses to robot abuse, extending the Computers as Social Actors (CASA) and uncanny valley theories into a moral domain. In an experiment, we invite 201 participants to view videos depicting abuse toward a robot with low (Spider), moderate (Two-Foot), or high (Humanoid) anthropomorphism. To provide a comprehensive analysis, we triangulate three modalities: self-report surveys measuring emotions and uncanniness, physiological data from automated facial expression analysis, and qualitative reflections. Findings indicate that protective responses are not linear. The moderately anthropomorphic Two-Foot robot, rated highest in eeriness and "spine-tingling" sensations consistent with the uncanny valley, elicited the strongest physiological anger expressions. Self-reported anger and guilt are significantly higher for both the Two-Foot and Humanoid robots compared to the Spider. Qualitative findings further reveal that as anthropomorphism increases, moral reasoning shifts from technical assessments of property damage to condemnation of the abuser's character, while governance proposals expand from property law to calls for quasi-animal rights and broader societal responsibility. These results suggest that the uncanny valley does not dampen moral concern but paradoxically heightens protective impulses, offering critical implications for robot design, policy, and future legal frameworks.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

NarraGuide: an LLM-based Narrative Mobile Robot for Remote Place Exploration

Robotic telepresence enables users to navigate and experience remote environments. However, effective navigation and situational awareness depend on users' prior knowledge of the environment, limiting the usefulness of these systems for exploring unfamiliar places. We explore how integrating location-aware LLM-based narrative capabilities into a mobile robot can support remote exploration. We developed a prototype system, called NarraGuide, that provides narrative guidance for users to explore and learn about a remote place through a dialogue-based interface. We deployed our prototype in a geology museum, where remote participants (n=20) used the robot to tour the museum. Our findings reveal how users perceived the robot's role, engaged in dialogue in the tour, and expressed preferences for bystander encountering. Our work demonstrates the potential of LLM-enabled robotic capabilities to deliver location-aware narrative guidance and enrich the experience of exploring remote environments.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Designing Telepresence Robots to Support Place Attachment

People feel attached to places that are meaningful to them, which psychological research calls "place attachment." Place attachment is associated with self-identity, self-continuity, and psychological well-being. Even small cues, including videos, images, sounds, and scents, can facilitate feelings of connection and belonging to a place. Telepresence robots that allow people to see, hear, and interact with a remote place have the potential to establish and maintain a connection with places and support place attachment. In this paper, we explore the design space of robotic telepresence to promote place attachment, including how users might be guided in a remote place and whether they experience the environment individually or with others. We prototyped a telepresence robot that allows one or more remote users to visit a place and be guided by a local human guide or a conversational agent. Participants were 38 university alumni who visited their alma mater via the telepresence robot. Our findings uncovered four distinct user personas in the remote experience and highlighted the need for social participation to enhance place attachment. We generated design implications for future telepresence robot design to support people's connections with places of personal significance.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

XR for All: Understanding Developers' Perspectives on Accessibility Integration in Extended Reality

As immersive technologies enable unique, multimodal interaction methods, developers must also use tailored methods to support user accessibility, distinct from traditional software practices. We interviewed 25 industry extended reality (XR) developers, including freelancers, startups, midsize, and big tech companies about their motivations, techniques, barriers, and attitudes towards incorporating accessibility features in their XR apps. Our study revealed a variety of challenges, including conflicting priorities between application and platform developers regarding accessibility infrastructure; rapid development culture hindering accessible development; and the lack of accessible interaction design considerations at the ideation, design, and early prototyping stages. As a comprehensive set of XR accessibility guidelines has yet to be established, we also compiled and evaluated a set of accessibility guidelines for 3D virtual worlds and addressed their limitations when applied to XR. Finally, we inform the creation of effective support methods for industry developers.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

SMART-TBI: Design and Evaluation of the Social Media Accessibility and Rehabilitation Toolkit for Users with Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause a range of cognitive and communication challenges that negatively affect social participation in both face-to-face interactions and computer-mediated communication. In particular, individuals with TBI report barriers that limit access to participation on social media platforms. To improve access to and use of social media for users with TBI, we introduce the Social Media Accessibility and Rehabilitation Toolkit (\textbf{SMART-TBI}). The toolkit includes five aids (Writing Aid, Interpretation Aid, Filter Mode, Focus Mode, and Facebook Customization) designed to address the cognitive and communicative needs of individuals with TBI. We asked eight users with moderate-severe TBI and five TBI rehabilitation experts to evaluate each aid. Our findings revealed potential benefits of aids and areas for improvement, including the need for psychological safety, privacy control, and balancing business and accessibility needs; and overall mixed reactions among the participants to AI-based aids.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

"This really lets us see the entire world:" Designing a conversational telepresence robot for homebound older adults

In this paper, we explore the design and use of conversational telepresence robots to help homebound older adults interact with the external world. An initial needfinding study (N=8) using video vignettes revealed older adults' experiential needs for robot-mediated remote experiences such as exploration, reminiscence and social participation. We then designed a prototype system to support these goals and conducted a technology probe study (N=11) to garner a deeper understanding of user preferences for remote experiences. The study revealed user interactive patterns in each desired experience, highlighting the need of robot guidance, social engagements with the robot and the remote bystanders. Our work identifies a novel design space where conversational telepresence robots can be used to foster meaningful interactions in the remote physical environment. We offer design insights into the robot's proactive role in providing guidance and using dialogue to create personalized, contextualized and meaningful experiences.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2023

Investigating the Day-to-Day Experiences of Users with Traumatic Brain Injury with Conversational Agents

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause cognitive, communication, and psychological challenges that profoundly limit independence in everyday life. Conversational Agents (CAs) can provide individuals with TBI with cognitive and communication support, although little is known about how they make use of CAs to address injury-related needs. In this study, we gave nine adults with TBI an at-home CA for four weeks to investigate use patterns, challenges, and design requirements, focusing particularly on injury-related use. The findings revealed significant gaps between the current capabilities of CAs and accessibility challenges faced by TBI users. We also identified 14 TBI-related activities that participants engaged in with CAs. We categorized those activities into four groups: mental health, cognitive activities, healthcare and rehabilitation, and routine activities. Design implications focus on accessibility improvements and functional designs of CAs that can better support the day-to-day needs of people with TBI.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2023

Knowing Who Knows What: Designing Socially Assistive Robots with Transactive Memory System

Transactive Memory System (TMS) is a group theory that describes how communication can enable the combination of individual minds into a group. While this theory has been extensively studied in human-human groups, it has not yet been formally applied to socially assistive robot design. We demonstrate how the three-phase TMS group communication process-which involves encoding, storage, and retrieval-can be leveraged to improve decision making in socially assistive robots with multiple stakeholders. By clearly defining how the robot is gaining information, storing and updating its memory, and retrieving information from its memory, we believe that socially assistive robots can make better decisions and provide more transparency behind their actions in the group context. Bringing communication theory to robot design can provide a clear framework to help robots integrate better into human-human group dynamics and thus improve their acceptance and use.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2023

So, I Can Feel Normal: Participatory Design for Accessible Social Media Sites for Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can result in chronic sensorimotor, cognitive, psychosocial, and communication challenges that can limit social participation. Social media can be a useful outlet for social participation for individuals with TBI, but there are barriers to access. While research has drawn attention to the nature of access barriers, few studies have investigated technological solutions to address these barriers, particularly considering the perspectives of individuals with TBI. To address this gap in knowledge, we used a participatory approach to engage 10 adults with TBI in conceptualizing tools to address their challenges accessing Facebook. Participants described multifaceted challenges in using social media, including interface overload, social comparisons, and anxiety over self-presentation and communication after injury. They discussed their needs and preferences and generated ideas for design solutions. Our work contributes to designing assistive and accessibility technology to facilitate an equal access to the benefits of social media for individuals with TBI.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2022

Polite or Direct? Conversation Design of a Smart Display for Older Adults Based on Politeness Theory

Conversational interfaces increasingly rely on human-like dialogue to offer a natural experience. However, relying on dialogue involving multiple exchanges for even simple tasks can overburden users, particularly older adults. In this paper, we explored the use of politeness theory in conversation design to alleviate this burden and improve user experience. To achieve this goal, we categorized the voice interaction offered by a smart display application designed for older adults into seven major speech acts: request, suggest, instruct, comment, welcome, farewell, and repair. We identified face needs for each speech act, applied politeness strategies that best address these needs, and tested the ability of these strategies to shape the perceived politeness of a voice assistant in an online study ($n=64$). Based on the findings of this study, we designed direct and polite versions of the system and conducted a field study ($n=15$) in which participants used each of the versions for five days at their homes. Based on five factors merged from our qualitative findings, we identified four distinctive user personas$\unicode{x2013}$socially oriented follower, socially oriented leader, utility oriented follower, and utility oriented leader$\unicode{x2013}$that can inform personalized design of smart displays.

cs.HC↗