Trust and speech are both essential aspects of human interaction. On the one hand, trust is necessary for vocal communication to be meaningful. On the other hand, humans have developed a way to infer someone’s trustworthiness from their voice, as well as to signal their own. Yet, research on trustworthiness attributions to speakers is scarce and contradictory, and very often uses explicit data, which do not predict actual trusting behaviour. However, measuring behaviour is very important to have an actual representation of trust. This thesis contains 5 experiments aimed at examining the influence of various voice characteristics — including accent, prosody, emotional expression and naturalness — on trusting behaviours towards virtual players and robots. The experiments have the "investment game"—a method derived from game theory, which allows to measure implicit trustworthiness attributions over time — as their main methodology. Results show that standard accents, high pitch, slow articulation rate and smiling voice generally increase trusting behaviours towards a virtual agent, and a synthetic voice generally elicits higher trustworthiness judgments towards a robot. The findings also suggest that different voice characteristics influence trusting behaviours with different temporal dynamics. Furthermore, the actual behaviour of the various speaking agents was modified to be more or less trustworthy, and results show that people’s trusting behaviours develop over time accordingly. Also, people reinforce their trust towards speakers that they deem particularly trustworthy when these speakers are indeed trustworthy, but punish them when they are not. This suggests that people’s trusting behaviours might also be influenced by the congruency of their first impressions with the actual experience of the speaker’s trustworthiness — a "congruency effect". This has important implications in the context of Human–Machine Interaction, for example for assessing users’ reactions to speaking machines which might not always function properly. Taken together, the results suggest that voice influences trusting behaviour, and that first impressions of a speaker’s trustworthiness based on vocal cues might not be indicative of future trusting behaviours, and that trust should be measured dynamically.

<p>Today’s automobile cockpit is filled with different buttons and screen-based displays giving input and relaying information in a complex human-machine system. Following in the footsteps of the early 1970s flight industry, this thesis work focused on creating a complete glass cockpit concept in the automobile.</p><p>Our automobile glass cockpit consists of three displays. A touch screen based centre console with an interface that we took part in creating during the spring of 2006. Parallel to this ongoing master thesis, a head-up display was installed by a group of students and we had the opportunity of giving input regarding the design of the graphical interface.</p><p>The third display, a LCD, replaces the main instruments displaying speed, RPM, fuel level, engine temperature etc. Together with ideas on an extended allocation of functions to the area on and around the steering wheel, creating a dynamic mode based interface replacing today’s static main instruments was the focus of this project.</p><p>After conducting a thorough theoretical study, a large number of ideas were put to the test and incorporated in concept sketches. Paper sketches ranging from detailed features to all-embracing concepts combined with interviews and brainstorming sessions converged into a number of computer sketches made in an image processing software. The computer sketches was easily displayed in the cockpit environment and instantly evaluated. Some parts were discarded and some incorporated in new, modified, ideas leading to a final concept solution.</p><p>After the design part was concluded, the new graphical interface was given functionality with the help of a programming software. As was the case with the computer sketches, the functionality of the interface could be quickly evaluated and modified. With the help of a custom-made application our interface could be integrated with the simulator software and fully implemented in the automobile cockpit at the university simulator facilities.</p><p>Using a custom made scenario, the interface underwent a minor, informal evaluation. A number of potential users were invited to the VR-laboratory and introduced to the new concept. After driving a pre-determined route and familiarizing themselves with the interface, their thoughts on screen-based solutions in general and the interface itself was gathered. In addition, we ourselves performed an evaluation of the interface based on the theoretical study.</p>

<p>This thesis work resulted in a template for how the thermal spray process can be controlled through robot programs. The robots today and their programs need to be replaced, therefore a new structure which can be matched with the new robot systems is needed. The work is limited to only concern structured programming on the new robots on Thermal Spray Centre (TC) with the programming language Rapid. The basic data for the program was retrieved from interviews with concerned personnel at TC, from studies on process parameters for thermal spray and from existing specifications at Volvo Aero Corporation (VAC). The thesis work briefly describes the process thermal spray and the four methods used at VAC. A literature survey on Jackson Structured Programming, Human Machine Interface and structured programming was made and used to compare, evaluate and suggest improvements for the thermal spray work cell. A functional suggestion for a menu system in a robot program for the thermal spray robot was presented. This will be in the robot permanently for uploading of detail programs from a network connected computer. An example of such a detail program was made but without robot movement and communication with the process computer. Testing of the programs has therefore only been made on a robot not suited for thermal spraying. The new detail program shows its parameters directly on the screen so they can be controlled against the operation papers. A programmer\2019s guide to the detail program has been made which is presented in the report.</p>

Today’s automobile cockpit is filled with different buttons and screen-based displays giving input and relaying information in a complex human-machine system. Following in the footsteps of the early 1970s flight industry, this thesis work focused on creating a complete glass cockpit concept in the automobile. Our automobile glass cockpit consists of three displays. A touch screen based centre console with an interface that we took part in creating during the spring of 2006. Parallel to this ongoing master thesis, a head-up display was installed by a group of students and we had the opportunity of giving input regarding the design of the graphical interface. The third display, a LCD, replaces the main instruments displaying speed, RPM, fuel level, engine temperature etc. Together with ideas on an extended allocation of functions to the area on and around the steering wheel, creating a dynamic mode based interface replacing today’s static main instruments was the focus of this project. After conducting a thorough theoretical study, a large number of ideas were put to the test and incorporated in concept sketches. Paper sketches ranging from detailed features to all-embracing concepts combined with interviews and brainstorming sessions converged into a number of computer sketches made in an image processing software. The computer sketches was easily displayed in the cockpit environment and instantly evaluated. Some parts were discarded and some incorporated in new, modified, ideas leading to a final concept solution. After the design part was concluded, the new graphical interface was given functionality with the help of a programming software. As was the case with the computer sketches, the functionality of the interface could be quickly evaluated and modified. With the help of a custom-made application our interface could be integrated with the simulator software and fully implemented in the automobile cockpit at the university simulator facilities. Using a custom made scenario, the interface underwent a minor, informal evaluation. A number of potential users were invited to the VR-laboratory and introduced to the new concept. After driving a pre-determined route and familiarizing themselves with the interface, their thoughts on screen-based solutions in general and the interface itself was gathered. In addition, we ourselves performed an evaluation of the interface based on the theoretical study.

One reason Qualitative Spatial Reasoning (QSR) is becoming increasingly important to Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the need for a smooth ‘human-like’ communication between autonomous agents and people. The selected, yet general, task motivating the work presented here is the scenario of an object configuration that has to be described by an observer on the ground using only relational object positions. The description provided should enable a second agent to create a map-like picture of the described configuration in order to recognize the configuration on a representation from the survey perspective, for instance on a geographic map or in the landscape itself while observing it from an aerial vehicle. Either agent might be an autonomous system or a person. Therefore, the particular focus of this work lies on the necessity to develop description and reconstruction methods that are cognitively easy to apply for a person. This thesis presents the representation scheme QuaDRO (Qualitative Description and Reconstruction of Object configurations). Its main contributions are a specification and qualitative classification of information available from different local viewpoints into nine qualitative equivalence classes. This classification allows the preservation of information needed for reconstruction nto a global frame of reference. The reconstruction takes place in an underlying qualitative grid with adjustable granularity. A novel approach for representing objects of eight different orientations by two different frames of reference is used. A substantial contribution to alleviate the reconstruction process is that new objects can be inserted anywhere within the reconstruction without the need for backtracking or rereconstructing. In addition, an approach to reconstruct configurations from underspecified descriptions using conceptual neighbourhood-based reasoning and coarse object relations is presented.

This study targets assembly industry, which deals with varying businesses that require any product assembly. It reflects on the challenges of the current production lines at assembly industry regarding the trends of both the consumer and the industrial developments on technology investigated which aspects can be improved or re-designed under the given delimitations. Moreover further consideration is done on human operators’ role in the assembly line and their future role in correlation with their current challenges and expectations. Results and further analysis are done from the drift of the R&amp;D on future assembly environment by considering interconnected software-hardware-human sides of the interaction, the change in the balance of products and also to point out new areas of research to Marketing and R&amp;D Departments.

This thesis work resulted in a template for how the thermal spray process can be controlled through robot programs. The robots today and their programs need to be replaced, therefore a new structure which can be matched with the new robot systems is needed. The work is limited to only concern structured programming on the new robots on Thermal Spray Centre (TC) with the programming language Rapid. The basic data for the program was retrieved from interviews with concerned personnel at TC, from studies on process parameters for thermal spray and from existing specifications at Volvo Aero Corporation (VAC). The thesis work briefly describes the process thermal spray and the four methods used at VAC. A literature survey on Jackson Structured Programming, Human Machine Interface and structured programming was made and used to compare, evaluate and suggest improvements for the thermal spray work cell. A functional suggestion for a menu system in a robot program for the thermal spray robot was presented. This will be in the robot permanently for uploading of detail programs from a network connected computer. An example of such a detail program was made but without robot movement and communication with the process computer. Testing of the programs has therefore only been made on a robot not suited for thermal spraying. The new detail program shows its parameters directly on the screen so they can be controlled against the operation papers. A programmer\2019s guide to the detail program has been made which is presented in the report.

Advances in communication and information technologies, as well as recent developments in computer technology, material research and sensor networks instigate the studies on active and dynamic environments, which call for the participation of the human and the machine in the definition of responsiveness in architecture. The thesis aims to provide for an ontological inquiry on responsiveness and responsive environments by undertaking an overview of the extensive interest in the responsive experience in architecture. It scrutinizes the field of responsive environments with a particular focus on the machinic approaches that (re)problematize the human-machine interaction. For this purpose, the thesis relates the concept of responsiveness with the machinism debate and considers the associations between the body, the human-machine interaction and the condition of embodiment in responsive environments. The machinism debate is discussed in reference to responsiveness and assesses the issue of embodiment and human-machine interaction in responsive environments. By reflecting on the human-machine interaction, the re-conceptualization of the issue of embodiment is rendered in reference to the body, the definition of which arises from the relations between the body, the environment and the machine, continuously updated during their interaction. The thesis identifies this altered concept of the body as a significant stimulation for new modes of human-machine interaction as it enables the embodiment of relations in relation to the body and initiates the re-conceptualization of both embodiment and human-machine interaction. In this respect, the thesis presents an assessment of the nature of human-machine interaction and its re-problematization in responsive environments, where the challenged conditions of body and embodiment are discussed in reference to debates in the philosophy of mind on different interpretations of the mind-body relationship. Referring to particular examples from different periods and contexts, the consequences of embracing machinic approaches in the definition of responsive environments are considered, where the dissolution of dichotomies between human and machine, subject and object, human and non-human, and mind and body are questioned in line with these transformations.

<p>This thesis aimed to study the interaction between an educational technology system and its users and give suggestions for design improvements. The technology system is called EDIT (Educational Development through Information Technology) and has been developed and applied at Linköping University’s Faculty of Health Science. EDIT supports Problem Based Learning and enables scenarios to be presented through the World Wide Web. </p><p>The study was divided into two parts. The first part consisted of a qualitative study with the objective to describe the interaction between the students and EDIT. Students from the faculty’s medical-, nursing- and social care programs were interviewed and observed using the system. The study showed that EDIT was not fully designed to support multiple user interaction. EDIT could only be operated by one user at a time which in turn resulted in an interaction reliant on the operators technical knowledge and ability to handle the system. The second part consisted of a redesign of EDIT. The design goal was to create a groupware that could be operated by multiple users. The design solutions were presented as lofi prototypes to three EDIT users. The users approved of the ideas but stressed the danger of using too advanced and unfamiliar technology.</p>

This thesis analyzes the concept of robot mimicking in the field of Human-Machine Interaction (HMI). Gestures are investigated for HMI applications and the preliminary work of the mimicking of a model joint with markers is presented. Two separate systems are proposed finally which are capable of detecting a moving human arm in a video sequence and calculating the orientation of the arm. The angle of orientation found is passed to robot arm in order to realize robot mimicking. The simulations show that it is possible to determine human arm orientation either by using some markers or some initial background image information or tracking of features.