Expected Behavior and Desired Appearance of Insect-Like Desk Companions

Abstract

Prior work on zoomorphic desktop companions has shown that these can fulfill a wide range of functionality and convey emotional value. When mimicking familiar animals or pets, however, users may develop unrealistic expectations about the available functionality and behavior of the companion. To amend this limitation, we propose insect-inspired concepts as a way to utilize our intuitive understanding of insects without raising unrealistic expectations of the companions. We built 11 tangible insect prototypes with varying forms and levels of abstraction and illustrated their potential behavior in video vignettes. The prototypes and vignettes were shown to 22 participants to elicit desired functionalities of insect-inspired companions, possible ways of conveying these and the meaning insect companions could have for the user. The results open up a realistic design space for the appearance and behavior of insect-inspired robots as desktop companions.