Rebo: A Pet-Like Strokable Remote Control

Paper:

Rebo: A Pet-Like Strokable Remote Control
Kazuki Kobayashi∗1 , Seiji Yamada∗2,∗3,∗4 , Shinobu Nakagawa∗5 , and Yasunori Saito∗6∗1 Graduate School of Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano City 380-8553, Japan

E-mail: kby@shinshu-u.ac.jp∗2 National Institute of Informatics, 2-1-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda, Tokyo 101-8430, Japan

E-mail: seiji@nii.ac.jp∗3 SOKENDAI, Shonan Village, Hayama, Kanagawa 240-0193, Japan∗4 Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 226-8503, Japan∗5 Design Department, Osaka University of Arts, 469 Higashiyama, Kanan-cho, Minami Kawachi-gun, Osaka 585-8555, Japan

E-mail: shinobu@osaka-geidai.ac.jp∗6 Faculty of Engineering, Shinshu University, 4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano City 380-8553, Japan

E-mail: saitoh@cs.shinshu-u.ac.jp[Received May 2, 2012; accepted September 19, 2012]

This paper describes a pet-like remote control called
Rebo for home appliances and TVs. Rebo has three
new advantages over conventional remote controls:
user-friendliness, function awareness, and functional
manipulation by stroking touch panels. Its pet-likepresence and facial expressions make it seem friendly
to users. Its function awareness makes users easily
aware of its functions through expressive feedback
that informs them of the meaning of their manipulations by showing part of the function that is to be
executed. The ability to manipulate its functions bystroking it like one would do a pet also enables users
to use Rebo without having to look for buttons to push.
We conducted experiments in which we monitored theeye movements of users while they operated Rebo andanother remote control and administered questionnaires to users afterwards. The experimental results
revealed significant aspects of Rebo and confirmed its
advantages.

Keywords: pet-like remote control, remote control agent,
stroke manipulation, action sloping

1. Introduction
People’s homes today are filled with various remotecontrols for TVs, air conditioners, room lights, etc. Although electronic remote controls are commonplace, theiruse has significant problems. For example, complicatedremote controls tend to confuse users. A universal remote [1], which aggregates the functions of various remote controls, is only a partial solution to address thisproblem. Such remote controls are not very user-friendly
because their designs focus on efficiency rather than easeof use. Traditional button-based remote controls also require users to search for target buttons and to move theirfingers correctly to push them. Moreover, users need tolook back and forth at their fingers and the appliance sevVol.16 No.7, 2012eral times in order to do the right thing.
There have been studies on using robots as interfaces(Robotic User Interface; RUI) [2]. Conversational robots
such as iCat [3, 4] and Phyno [5] can control home appliances through interactive speech with users. Sekiguchi
et al. [6] developed a teddy-bear-like robot and used it
as a physical avatar. Users convey the behavior of theteddy-bear-like robot by manipulating its head and arms.
Shimizu et al. [7] also used a teddy-bear-like robot as aninterface to control a video game. Marti et al. [8] developed a palm-sized pet-like robot and users executed functions such as call handling through interactive speech andby touching its body. Pet-like robots convey a sense offriendliness and as a result have been used in therapy orfor entertainment [9–12]; they provide haptic interaction,
which many people find to be a comfortable means of interacting. Although devices to control home appliances
are very important and profitable applications of RUIs,
few studies have attempted to use pet-like robots as remote controls for this purpose.
This paper describes a pet-like remote control for home
appliances and an advanced TV system that we have been
studying [13, 14]. The remote control, called Rebo, canbe manipulated by the user stroking it and conveys a senseof friendliness because it does not require precise manipulations and has a life-like appearance. The stroke-typeof manipulation enables users to use Rebo easily without having to look for buttons to press. Rebo has three
new main advantages over conventional remote controls:
user-friendliness, function awareness, and stroke manipulation. We conducted experiments with participants inwhich we monitored their eye movements while they manipulated Rebo and a conventional remote control and administered questionnaires to them afterwards.
The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 explains a design policy of Rebo, its three main
advantages, and basic architecture. Section 3 describes a
remote control for an advanced TV system that was selected as an application of Rebo. Section 4 explains theexperiments that we conducted to evaluate Rebo’s advan-

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tages and presents their results. We present a discussionof the experiment in Section 5 and related work in Section 6, and we conclude the paper in Section 7.

2. Agent as a Remote Control
2.1. Design Policy
Conventional remote controls of home appliances havevarious problems such as too many buttons, complicatedmanipulation, difficulty in finding functions, directional
property of an infrared ray from remote controls, and easeof loss. This study mainly focuses on the problems of
too many buttons, the complicated manipulation, and the
difficulty in finding functions.
Since users typically search for the button on a conventional remote control that will perform the required function of an appliance, they need to look back and forth attheir fingers and the appliance several times in order todo the right thing. We call this kind of inconvenience theback-and-forth problem based on complicated manipulation with many buttons and propose stroke manipulation
to solve it. Additionally, searching for a required function of an appliance and studying how to manipulate it
are often complicated and difficult. When users purchasea new home electronic appliance that they have had little experience in using, they read the user’s manual before using it in order to understand its functions. Therefore, a way for users to comprehend a machine’s functions without having to read manuals would be useful,
and we propose function awareness for users to find functions easily without reading manuals. There is an anotherproblem: users do not always accept new machines withnovel technology; they sometimes reject them and regard
them as useless. Thus, it is important to lead them togreater acceptance of technology and perceive its usability more quickly. This study uses an approach to makea remote control with greater user-friendliness based ona study about a mobile robot with intimacy [15]. We
designed the proposed remote control to provide greateruser-friendliness, and it has pet-like appearance and behavior because pet animals often make their owners feelpleasant, relaxed, and comfortable.
As outlined above, we propose a novel remote control with three advantages; stroke manipulation, function
awareness, and user-friendliness. The next subsections
explain the details of the advantages.
2.2. Stroke Manipulation
Users stroke the proposed remote control’s surface tocontrol appliances because it has no buttons. In this manipulation, they do not need to move their fingers correctly or look for the button that they need to push. It
is more comfortable for them to look at a home appliancethat they want to control than to gaze at a remote control
because the appliance gives more salient feedback than
the remote control. Moreover, it can provide pleasant andrelaxed feelings if users interact with it as they would do
772

Fig. 1. Intensity of feedback behavior.

a pet or a stuffed animal. Thus, manipulating the remotecontrol by stroking it would have advantages over conventional button-based remote controls.

2.3. Function Awareness
Function awareness is a user’s awareness that manipulating a machine causes its functions [16]. In thisstudy, we adopted action sloping [17], which enables
users to notice machine’s functions. Action sloping enables machines to provide continuous feedback that gradually changes in intensity as users carry out given actions.
Figure 1(a) shows the conventional method for displaying feedback behavior, in which the feedback intensity is a physical quantity that represents perceptible intensity of a signal for feedback to users such as volumesof sound [dB], frequency of vibration [Hz], and distanceof movement [m]. Manipulation completeness is the degree that represents progress of a manipulation in which
1 means the state when a function is completely executedand 0 means the state when a manipulation for the function is not started. It has continuous values from 0 to 1
without unit. When the machine completely executes oneof its functions, its result is provided to the user as feedback. However, the machine provides no feedback if users
do not use a function. In contrast, with the action sloping
in Fig. 1(b), the machine exhibits feedback behavior evenwhen a function is not being used. It provides feedback
in response to an incomplete manipulation by users. In
this way, action sloping enables users to understand therelationship between their actions and the machine’s functions.

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Rebo: A Pet-Like Strokable Remote Control

Fig. 2. Rebo: remote control agent.

Users in this study interacted with the proposed remotecontrol by stroking it. This kind of interaction is a continuous action and easily achieves action sloping. We
utilized this feature and implemented partial execution
as a way for users to become aware of the functions of
the machines. Partial execution is a method for feedback
expression that provides meaning to user manipulations
by showing part of the executing function. For example,
when users stroke the remote control for a short time toturn off the TV, it decreases the image dimensions of the
TV for a short time. If they stroke it for a long time, it decreases the image dimensions and turns off the power for
the TV. The feedback expressions of the machine strongly
depend on its functions and have been designed for eachapplication.

Fig. 3. System architecture.

Fig. 4. Inner structure of Rebo.

2.4. User-Friendliness
The photo in Fig. 2 shows the proposed remote control
with a pet-like appearance called Rebo. Rebo is 249 mm
long, 146 mm wide, and 96 mm high. Its body is covered
with soft and bouncy cloth and is pleasant to the touch.
We carefully designed its shape and appearance with thehelp of an industrial designer (one of the authors). Rebochanges its facial expressions and body color to inform
users of its internal state because informing internal statesof machines provide comfortable impression [18]. Interacting with Rebo can be like playing with a pet animal
as well as a means of manipulating home electronic appliances. Its pet-like presence and behavior would elicit
friendly feelings from users and encourage them to use it
without hesitation.
The pet-like presence of Rebo should enable users totouch it easily. Austermann et al. [19] compared user interactions with a humanoid robot and a dog-shaped robot.
They reported that the way feedback was given differedsignificantly. Users of the pet-robot tended to reward it bytouching it while saying phrases like “well done.” Usersof the humanoid did not touch it but said “thank you.”Thus, the pet-like presence of Rebo plays an importantrole in incentivizing users to touch it.
2.5. System Architecture
Figure 3 outlines the architecture of our system. The
system requires a PC to change Rebo’s facial and LED
light expressions and to control the home appliances. The
LED bars and their controller are powered by an iPod
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touch. Fig. 4 is a photo of the inner structure of Rebo.
A display for facial expressions, full-color LED bars, andthree touch devices are embedded in the body. Two devices are used as touch sensors, and the remaining one isused for displaying facial expressions. The touch areas
are covered with smooth cloth that is soft and thin. Users
can select the touch area they like because both areas havethe same functions. Although there is a vertical boundary
between the touch areas, we do not assume that users will
stroke Rebo across the boundary in one stroke.
The positions of the user’s fingers touching the screen
are sent to a host PC through WiFi from the device’s web
browser, Safari. We used Open Sound Control (OSC) [20]as a communication protocol. When the users touch thebrowser on a device, a JavaScript program is executed anda PHP function sends OSC packets to the connected PC.
The OSC server on the PC deals with OSC packets andrewrites a local XML file. A JavaScript program on thedevice used to show a facial expression periodically accesses the XML file by using Ajax. The program on thedevice changes the gif animations in accordance with the
XML file’s description. The LED bars are controlled by
one of the devices. When the device receives a command
to change the LED’s color, it sends a color value to the
LED controller through the serial connection. We used
the programming language, Processing, to send and receive OSC packets from the PC to the device, and to manage the LED’s color.

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3.1.2. Change in Sound Volume
When the user strokes Rebo up and down, the volume indicator (vertical bar) appears on the video image(Fig. 7). The length of the indicator changes as the fingers move.

Fig. 5. Facial expressions.

The facial expressions and LED light expressions areused to inform users of changing modes. Fig. 5 shows thefacial expressions in sleep mode and work mode. Whenits surface has not been touched for 10 seconds, Rebo goesto sleep; it closes its eyes and slowly blinks its blue LEDs.
It goes into work mode when the user touches it in sleep
mode; it displays a face with rapidly blinking eyes, andits LEDs quickly blink in yellow to express waking up.
When Rebo is not being touched in work mode, its LEDs
light up green and it sometimes blinks. It is important thatusers do not need to look at Rebo when it is in work mode.

3. Rebo as TV Remote Control
We made Rebo act as a TV remote control for a TV system that we had developed. The developed system, called
the advanced TV system, provides feedback behaviors
based on partial execution. The system shows recorded
TV programs on a PC monitor instead of a commercial
TV. Traditional remote controls can also be used to communicate with the advanced TV system. We needed to develop the advanced TV system because it was too difficult
to implement feedback behavior based on action sloping
and partial execution on a conventional TV.

3.1. Manipulation of Strokes for TV
The functions we implemented were selecting channels, changing in sound volume, and turning the poweron and off. This section describes the method for manipulating Rebo and the feedback behavior of the TV.
3.1.1. Selection of Channels
Figure 6 shows a series of screenshots in which thepositions of two video images change as a user strokes
the surface of Rebo right and left. When he/she broadly
strokes the surface of Rebo with his/her fingers, the rightand left video image go outside the TV frame and another video image enters the frame. When he/she strokes
Rebo for a short time, part of another video image entersthe frame and then exits the frame automatically. In thisdemonstration, we used recorded TV programs and did
not use TV tuners.

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3.1.3. Power on and off
The screenshots at the top of Fig. 8 show a video image
being shrunk. When the user touches Rebo for more than
one second, the video image’s dimensions are reduced until the image finally disappears. If he/she stops touching
Rebo before the picture disappears, the image returns to
its ordinary size. The screenshots at the bottom of Fig. 8
show a video image being enlarged. In this case, the image is gradually enlarged until it reaches its maximum size
while the user touches Rebo. When the user stops touching it (before the image reaches its maximum size signaling that the TV is on again), the image automatically
becomes smaller and disappears.

3.2. Partial Execution for Function Awareness
Users can easily manipulate Rebo without having tolook at their fingers or search for buttons. They can concentrate on feedback from the TV monitor instead of Rebo
itself. Video image animations such as sliding and zooming are implemented on the basis of partial execution to
enable function awareness. Users can understand what
the animation means from the feedback provided by the
TV before the function is completely executed. Therefore,
they can quickly identify the function of the TV simply bystroking Rebo.

4. Experiments
We conducted experiments to evaluate the advantages
and disadvantages of Rebo. Impressions of its appearance, usability, ease of finding functions, and eye movements were compared with those of a typical TV infrared
remote (IR remote). Eye movements were used to determine whether participants performed manipulations without looking at Rebo. The experiments evaluated Rebo’suser-friendliness, function awareness, and effect of stroke
manipulation.

4.1. Participants and Experimental Environment
Twelve male participants took part in the experiments(mean age: 23.7, S.D. = 1.9). They were undergraduate and graduate students of the Faculty of Engineering
at Shinshu University.
We used an eye tracker integrated into Tobii T60’s LCD
monitor to display videos that were recorded from terrestrial broadcasting. The monitor was 17 inches across diagonally, and we set the resolution at 800 × 600 pixels.
Three videos were used and the categories were news, animation, and comedy. We call this system including theeye tracker the advanced TV system, and certain partial

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Rebo: A Pet-Like Strokable Remote Control

Fig. 6. Selecting channels.

Fig. 7. Changing sound volume.

Fig. 8. Turn on and off.

executions were implemented on it. Fig. 9 shows a photoof the experimental environment. An experimenter accompanied and instructed the participants.
Figure 10 shows the IR remote of the experiments.
It had power, channel-selection, and sound-volume buttons. The channel-selection button and the sound-volume
Vol.16 No.7, 2012

buttons had rocker structures; the upper and lower partsof the buttons could be pushed separately. For example,
when users pushed the upper part of the channel-selection
button, the channels changed forwards, and when theypushed its lower part, the channels changed backwards.

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Table 1. Instructions to manipulate TV.
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Instruction
Turn on TV.
Change channel twice.
Change channel four times in reverse order.
Maximize sound volume.
Minimize sound volume.
Change channel four times.
Raise sound volume to medium.
Change channel twice.
Turn off TV.
Turn on TV.
Maximize sound volume.
Change channel once.
Turn off TV.

Fig. 9. Experimental environment.

ished, the experimenter explained how to manipulate thedevice correctly and asked them to try to manipulate it
freely for five minutes.
Participants then answered questions about their impressions and the usability of the device. They were instructed to circle numbers that represented the degree ofcoincidence related to adjective pairs. The same procedure was then conducted with the other device.

Fig. 10. IR remote.

4.2. Procedure of Experiments
We used a within-subject experimental design. Participants used Rebo and the IR remote. The order in which
the devices were provided was different for each participant and was counter-balanced. The experiments werecomposed of two consecutive phases: a finding-function
phase and an eye-tracking phase.
When the participants entered the experimental room,
they were given explanations about the experiment. We
began the experiment after they had given their informed
consent. The participants were instructed to adjust their
posture and chair so that they were relaxed and could easily look at the monitor.
4.2.1. Finding-Functions Phase
Rebo or the IR remote was provided to the participants.
The experimenter explained to the participants there were
three functions: turning the power on and off, selecting
channels, and changing the sound volume. He instructed
them to find manipulation method to execute these functions. Each trial continued until participants reported they
had found all the functions or five minutes had elapsed.
Because the power was off in the initial state of the advanced TV system, the experimenter turned on the TV
system without showing participants how he had manipulated the power-on function if they could not carry out
manipulation within one minute. After all trials were fin776

4.2.2. Eye-Tracking Phase
The eye-tracking phase was conducted after thefinding-functions phase. Participants were provided with
Rebo or the IR remote. First, the eye tracking software
was calibrated to each participant, and then their eye
movements were recorded. We used a Tobii T60 eyetracking system. After the TV system software was run,the participants were instructed to manipulate the devicein accordance with the experimenter’s instructions. They
were also instructed to concentrate on the LCD monitor
and the device, and not to look at the experimenter. The
experimenter stood behind the participants. Table 1 lists
the details on the instructions given to the participants on
how to manipulate the TV. The experimenter did not instruct the participant to look at the devices or to use both
hands.

4.3. Experimental Results
The experimental results on impressions of appearance,ease of finding functions, usability, and eye movements
are presented below.
4.3.1. Impressions of Appearance
Table 2 lists the rated adjective pairs for the impressions of appearance. The adjective pairs in the table havebeen translated from the Japanese that we used in thequestionnaire. The ratings were based on a seven-point
Likert scale (1: strong agreement with a negative adjective, 4: neutral, 7: strong agreement with a positive adjective). We performed a paired t-test to compare Rebo
with the IR remote. There were significant differences in

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Rebo: A Pet-Like Strokable Remote Control

Table 2. Rated adjective pairs for impressions of appearance.
Positive

Negativelikable∗ exciting∗ comfortable∗ interesting∗ warm∗ casual∗ friendly∗ cute∗ attractive
good companion

dislikabledull
uncomfortableboringcold
grave
unfriendly
ugly
unattractive
bad companion

Table 3. Comments on Rebo’s appearance.

Rebo
Mean (S.D.)
4.50 (1.31)
5.42 (1.16)
5.58 (0.79)
4.92 (1.31)
5.58 (1.00)
5.50 (0.67)
5.67 (0.65)
5.67 (1.67)
4.25 (1.42)
5.83 (0.83)

IR remoteMean (S.D.)
4.50 (0.90)
3.17 (1.53)
4.33 (0.89)
3.33 (1.61)
2.75 (1.29)
3.67 (1.56)
3.67 (1.15)
3.17 (1.80)
2.92 (1.38)
4.50 (1.68)

p

0.00
3.39
3.80
2.50
4.71
3.63
4.51
3.19
3.75
2.11

1.00
0.01
0.00
0.03
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.01
0.00
0.06

Table 4. Comments on IR remote’s appearance.

Advantages
It is cute and friendly.
Its surface feels nice.
Facial icons are comprehensive.
Functions can readily be identified to avoid wastingtime.
Blinking is advantageous.
Button-less design is advantageous.

N
7
4
3
3

Disadvantages
It is too large.
Its face and LEDs are unnecessary.
I am worried about dirtying it with fingerprints or oilyskin.
Its posture needs to be improved so that it can be moreeasily viewed.

N
11
7
2

2
2

Advantages
Layout and feeling of touch buttons are excellent.
Textual information is comprehensive.
Its high degree of functionality is advantageous.
Size of remote is optimal.

N
5
3
3
2

Disadvantages
There are too many buttons, and the layout is confusing.
Buttons are too small.
It is bland and ordinary.
It is too large.
The color combination is poor.

N
5
4
2
2
2

N: Number of participants

2

Table 5. Number of participants who found functions.

N: Number of participants

eight out of ten items, which have been marked with asterisks in the table. The t-values and p-values of the tests
are at the right of the table. All the ratings for Rebo withsignificant differences have higher ratings than those for
the IR remote. These results suggest that Rebo was moreuser-friendly than the typical IR remote.
The participants were interviewed on the appearance
and manipulation of devices. Tables 3 and 4 summarize their comments about the appearance. A majority ofparticipants answered “cute and friendly” for Rebo as its
main advantage. Some participants answered that it was“too large” and “its face and blinking LEDs are unnecessary.” Although we considered Rebo’s face and LEDs
to be advantageous, some participants considered them tobe unnecessary. We will discuss this discrepancy in Section 5.1.
Some participants answered “the layout and the feel oftouch buttons were excellent” as the main advantage ofthe appearance of the IR remote (Table 4). Its main disadvantages were that it had “too many buttons and was
confusing” and the “buttons were too small.” Although
the buttons on the IR remote were considered to be its
main advantage, their size and quantity confuse some participants.
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Rebo
IR remotePower on/off
7
12Sound volume
12
12

Channel12124.3.2. Ease of Finding Functions
Table 5 lists the number of participants who found thefunctions. All the participants under IR remote conditions
were able to find all the functions. Five participants under the Rebo conditions were not able to find the power
on/off function. These results suggest that manipulating
Rebo to select channels and change the sound volume was
as easy as with the IR remote. However, manipulating
Rebo’s power on/off function was not as easy as on the IR
remote.
These results did not directly suggest the effectivenessof partial execution, because it was difficult to identify accurately the main factors: the effect of the relationship indesign between manipulation and functions such as rightand left or up and down, and the effect of continuous feedback afforded by partial execution.
4.3.3. Usability
Table 6 lists the rated adjective pairs for usability. The
adjective pairs have been translated from the Japanese

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Table 6. Rated adjective pairs for usability.
Positive

Negativeenjoyable∗ simple∗ fast∗ convenient
unmistakable∗ easyannoying
complicatedslow
inconvenient
mistakabledifficult

Rebo
Mean (S.D.)
4.50 (1.24)
5.08 (1.16)
3.67 (1.50)
4.42 (1.44)
4.42 (2.07)
5.00 (1.48)

Table 7. Comments on manipulation of Rebo.

IR remoteMean (S.D.)
4.00 (0.74)
3.42 (1.88)
5.08 (1.83)
3.17 (1.70)
3.83 (1.99)
2.92 (1.31)

t

p

1.15
2.16
−2.38
2.70
0.70
3.42

0.27
0.05
0.04
0.02
0.50
0.01

Table 8. Comments on manipulation of IR remote.

Advantages
It is intuitive and comprehensible.
The movie sliding animation is advantageous.
It responds quickly.
I can manipulate it by looking at the TV monitor.

N
9
4
4
3

Disadvantages
The power switch is perplexing.
Specific channels need to be selected.
The sliding manipulation is difficult to use.

N
9
9
3

Advantages
It is comprehensible.
It is easy to hold.
I am used to manipulating it.

N
5
4
3

Disadvantages
It is difficult to manipulate.
It should have number buttons.
Its response in sound volume manipulation is slow.

N
5
3
3

N: Number of participants

N: Number of participants

Table 9. Number of eye movements directed at devices(N = 10).

questionnaire. The ratings are based on the seven-point
Likert scale (1: strong agreement with a negative adjective, 4: neutral, 7: strong agreement with a positive adjective). We performed a paired t-test to compare Rebo with
the IR remote. There were significant differences in fourof the six items, which have been marked with asterisks
in the table. The t-values and p-values for the tests areat the right of the table. The ratings for three items on
Rebo with significant identified differences were higher
than those for the IR remote. Although the IR remote was
rated to be faster than Rebo, the results overall suggested
that Rebo was simpler, more convenient, and easier to use
than the IR remote. We will discuss why Rebo was rated
to be slower than the IR remote in Section 5.1.
Tables 7 and 8 summarize the participants’ comments
about the manipulation. The majority of participants answered “intuitive and comprehensible” regarding Rebo
(Table 7). However, many participants answered “thepower switch is perplexing” and “specific channels need
to be directly selected” as its disadvantages. They mostly
accepted Rebo’s method for manipulation, except in regard to the power switch. Some participants answered“comprehensible” as the IR remote’s main advantage and“difficult to manipulate” as its main disadvantage compared with Rebo (Table 8). Although Rebo and the IR remote were both considered to be “comprehensible,” moreparticipants responded this way about Rebo.
4.3.4. Eye Movements
Table 9 lists the number of eye movements directed
at the devices. The eye tracker was able to record gazepoints on the screen as X-Y coordinates. Its sampling
778

Rebo
IR remote

Mean
2.00
3.20

S.D.
2.91
2.04

rate was 60 Hz, and eye-tracking accuracy was 0.5◦ . The
number of eye movements directed at the devices wasmeasured by analyzing the participants’ gaze point data.
When gaze points moved toward the bottom of the screen
and then moved outside the screen, this was regarded
as eye movement directed at the devices. We used thefollowing criteria to measure the number of eye movements directed at the devices because the value of the gazepoints outside the screen was “−1.” The number of eye
movements directed at the devices was counted up when
all three conditions were satisfied in a participant’s gazepoint data.
• There were more than two consecutive values foroutside the screen (done to exclude noise).
• There were values whose previous values indicatedmovement to the bottom of the screen.
• There were values whose previous value was at thebottom of the screen (y-value < 540).

We excluded data from two of the 12 participants because their gaze points were not correctly recorded. One
had too many gaze points outside the screen, and the otherwas not recognized by the eye tracker.
Our hypothesis was that participants could manipulate
Rebo by looking at it fewer times than the IR remote. We

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Fig. 11. Histogram of number of eye movements directed
at devices.

carried out Wilcoxon’s signed rank test with a continuity
correction to compare Rebo with the IR remote. AlthoughRebo’s mean was less than that for the IR remote, there
were no significant differences (Z = −1.18, p = 0.24).
Figure 11 shows histograms of the number of eye
movements directed at the devices. Note that there werefour participants who did not look at the device under
Rebo’s conditions. Under the IR remote’s conditions,
all participants looked at the device at least once. This
demonstrated the possibility of users manipulating Rebo
without having to look at it. We will discuss why there
was no significant differences in eye movements directed
at Rebo and the IR remote in Section 5.1.

5. Discussion
5.1. Analysis of Experimental Results
The difficulty in finding Rebo’s power on/off function(mentioned in Section 4.3.2) may have been caused by thelong response time from the advanced TV system. The
participants obtained no cues to find the function. There
was one second to respond to the power on/off manipulation with Rebo. This design policy was to avoid conflicts
during the manipulations to select channels, change thesound volume, and change the power state. We need to
improve the response time and method for manipulating
all functions.
The usability evaluation (described in Section 4.3.3) revealed that the manipulation response of Rebo appeared
to be slower than that of the IR remote. Such slowness
could have been caused by the time taken to display animations, such as zooming and sliding the image. A few
participants pointed out this problem. They reported thatthey wanted to turn off the TV immediately if they werebusy and did not want to wait for it to finish turning off.
Vol.16 No.7, 2012

Therefore, manipulating the power with Rebo would have
conveyed the impression of slowness.
We discussed our evaluation of eye movements in Section 4.3.4. Although our hypothesis was that participants
could manipulate Rebo by looking at it fewer times thanthe IR remote, there were no significant differences in thenumber of eye movements directed at the devices. Our
observations indicated that users tended to look at theirfingers when they felt they could not control Rebo. For
example, some participants looked at their fingers when
they touched the boundary of the touch area and received
feedback different from their expectations. The touch area
needs to be improved so that they can easily move theirfingers. From another standpoint, these results could havebeen caused by fewer TV functions. Participants would
have been able to manipulate the IR remote without looking at it because there were fewer buttons to push (seeFig. 10). Although there was no statistically significant
difference between Rebo and the IR remote, some participants reported that they preferred manipulating Rebo
without looking at it. Such manipulations would provide
a comfortable experience.
We considered Rebo’s appearance with its face andLEDs as being advantageous. However, its face and LEDs
were considered unnecessary according to some of theparticipants. Their comments contradicted our expectations and could have been caused by two different aspectsof Rebo: the entertaining aspect and the functional one.
From the entertainment viewpoint, the face and LEDs
were considered to be cute and friendly. However, fromthe functional viewpoint, they were unnecessary for a remote control. They may have thought that it was more
important to shrink Rebo than to show facial and LED expressions because they also responded that Rebo was toolarge. Consequently, reducing the number of touch devices will solve the size problem. The touch device for
facial display can be removed from Rebo, and only one
touch device can work as both a touch area and a facial
display. In this case, it is not reasonable to cover it withsmooth cloth because the LCD becomes difficult to see.
The design problem of balancing the body size, appearance, and functionality will be resolved in the future.
Rebo was designed through detailed discussions inwhich the authors, including an experienced industrial
designer who has expertise in designing various appliances, particularly discussed various prototypes, sketchesof candidates, and the three advantages. As an anotherapproach, a massive investigation from the Internet where
people with various background knowledge without regard for age or sex would be useful for considering thedesign of a new remote control. Such an investigation
might lead to other results and would need to be used forscreening prototypes of a new remote control in the next
step of our study.
We did not separate the interface and appearance factors in this experiment. Therefore, the results had wideranging implications. We may need to conduct an experiment in which a button-based remote control, a touch device with stroke control, and Rebo are compared to deter-

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Kobayashi, K. et al.

mine what factors affect users. Rebo had an interface andan appearance that we considered to be favorable, and weinvestigated their impacts on participants. The results weobtained were important findings.
A similar tendency was seen in the people’s impressions of a seal robot [10]. People who interacted with theseal robot evaluated it highly as being “cute” and “likeable” in questionnaires. Such impressions were similar
to those on Rebo’s appearance. The seal robot was developed for therapeutic purposes, and this result suggeststhat Rebo may also have a therapeutic effect that traditional remote controls do not have. On the other hand, theseal robot has a learning function by which it can perform
adaptive behavior preventing users from becoming boredin accordance with the user’s past behaviors with it because it is designed from the view point of long-term use.
We will investigate the possibility of such a therapeutic
effect and long-term use in the next stage of our study.
Although Rebo is designed to provide a comfortablefeeling and easy manipulation method and the experimental results suggested such advantages, people who areelderly or not familiar with information technology (IT)may not always accept it as quick as the participants who
used Rebo in the experiments, who were young and familiar with IT. We need to investigate the advantages ofRebo through experiments with people with various backgrounds and ages as participants. Moreover, the experimental results would include bias that affects the impressions, usability, finding-functions, and eye movements because the conventional remote control used as a rival of
Rebo is an everyday object that people are used to handling. A long-term use experiment might decrease thebias based on the difference in user experiences between
Rebo and the conventional remote and might offer morereasonable suggestions.

will be the same if the monitor size and the distance between them are changed because manipulation manners
for Rebo will not be largely changed. On the other hand,
effects on user-friendliness when users use Rebo in homes
will be different from that in the experimental environment because various kinds of interaction manners can beused, such as hugging Rebo as a cushion and playing with
it as a stuffed doll. Field experiments in homes to compare Rebo with the conventional remote control will provide useful data if we can improve Rebo so that it has a
break-proof body and easy configurability with commercial TV.
Rebo has an important other advantage, which is its
tolerance to incorrect manipulation by users. Users of
our system concentrate on feedback from the TV because
they can manipulate Rebo by stroking it without having
to look at it much. They can cancel the function before
it is completely executed because they observe the executed function in progress. For example, when users want
to change the volume by manipulating Rebo, they can try
different ways of stroking it and can observe partial execution. Users can stop an incorrect stroke before execution is completed and try other ways of stroking Rebo, if
the animation such as a video image (gradually moving
left or right during the partial execution) is different fromtheir expectation. However, button-based remote controls
do not provide such tolerance to mistaken input. Whenusers push an incorrect button in a button-based remotecontrol, the channel changes immediately and they havebarely any time to stop execution before it is completed.
In such cases, users need to search for and push the button
that will take them back to the previous channel, and thensearch for the button that will change the volume again.
This tolerance of Rebo enables users to operate appliances
casually without fear of making mistakes or experiencing
unexpected behavior. We plan to investigate what effectthis tolerance has through experiments with participants.

5.2. Limitations of Rebo and Other Advantages
Let us consider implementing a button-based remotecontrol with functions equivalent to Rebo in experiments
on TV interaction. A button-based remote control needs
to have two buttons to select the channels, another two
buttons to change the sound volume, and a button to turnthe TV on and off. Such a button-based remote control
may be developable. We can design buttons that have different colors and shapes, and these differences will enables users to distinguish buttons visually and hapticallywith ease. In this study, we did not develop an original
IR remote with fewer buttons because commercial IR remote controls are well designed and provide buttons with
good-feeling surfaces. It would be difficult to develop an
original IR remote that works properly and is as high quality as a commercial one. Therefore, we disabled unused
buttons on the commercial IR remote for the experiment.
The experimental environment we used is different
from a typical domestic environment. For example, larger
monitors are used in homes, and they are placed further
away from the remote control. We consider that the effects of ease of finding functions and stroke manipulation780

5.3. Rebo as a Universal Remote Control
Rebo may offer a promising prototype for universal
remote controls. In fact, we are planning to implement
various functions like context-sensitive remote control on
Rebo in order to develop it as a universal remote control.
• Context-sensitive remote control: We can use a sin-

gle remote control to control all the appliances in ahome. The objective of Rebo and the universal remote control is to build such a single remote control.
One of the most advanced universal remote controls
is the Personal Universal Controller (PUC). PUC isan approach to improve the interfaces for complex
appliances by introducing an intermediary graphicalor speech interface [21, 22]. However, a universal
remote control has a serious problem in that it needs
to change modes depending on the appliance being
controlled because one must use a restricted numberof buttons to obtain many functions for different appliances. For example, the same button can be used
to control the temperature of an air conditioner and

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Rebo: A Pet-Like Strokable Remote Control

adjust the volume in a TV control context. In Rebo,
stroke patterns can be used for different controls
depending on the target appliance. We called thiskind of universal remote control a “context-sensitive
remote control,” and we are preparing to develop
a context-sensitive machine-learning algorithm andimplement it on Rebo.
• Implementing additional functions on Rebo:

The
functions of the advanced TV system are restricted
at this stage of our work. However, the experimental
results revealed that it needs simpler functions thatcan be executed through simpler manipulations. It
is a fact that frequently used functions in appliancesthat have multiple functions are executed throughsimpler manipulations. The remaining functions that
we did not implement in the experiments could be
simply achieved by displaying graphical buttons on
Rebo. We are planning to implement more functions
using stroke manipulation rather than graphical buttons to set values. One of the most promising functions is the “value stroke.” Many appliances can becontrolled on the basis of values like temperature for
air conditioners, channel numbers for TVs, timer settings and the selection of menu items with numbers
for various appliances. A touch-pad has been developed on which the user can stroke alphabetical letters
and Graffiti-style unistrokes [23]. This kind of stroke
manipulation can be implemented on Rebo. The
value stroke is a very easy and intuitive manipulation. This method combined with a context-sensitive
function could make Rebo more general and useful.

6. Related Work
Rebo is a kind of touch-based remote control that enables users to control various appliances by stroking itwith their fingers. Such touch-based remote controls havebeen developed in research on human-computer interactions and user interfaces. Since users utilize Rebo by
stroking it with their fingers, they do not need to visually
recognize or understand any icons, signals, or acknowledgments from the remote control, which is in contrast toconventional touch-based remote controls. They can concentrate on feedback from appliances, and not from theremote controls themselves.
Other research somewhat resembles our approach.
Zhao et al. developed a portable audio player that had
an eyes-free approach to selecting menu items. It utilized touch input and reactive audio feedback [24]. Builet al. used touch-based manipulation to control headphones [25]. Brewster et al. designed a multi-modal interaction that was eyes-free for wearable devices [26]. Mobile and wearable computers have limited screen space
and a limited number of interaction techniques. They
overcame the input and output problems by developinga 3D audio radial pie menu and a sonically enhanced
2D gesture recognition system on a belt-mounted PDA.
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Micire et al. proposed a multi-touch remote control forhuman-robot interaction [27]. They tried to use a multitouch table to control a physical robot agent and described user interaction styles for complicated functionsof the multi-touch interface. All these previous studies attempted to enrich the usability of the user interface through touch-based devices. Rebo is very similar
to the previous studies from the viewpoint of developing
touch-based interface devices. However, Rebo’s touchbased approach provides not only a usable interface but
also pet-like presence and partial execution for function
awareness. Thus, it provides the novel advantages of atouch-based interface to a human-adaptive system.
There have also been studies on multi-modal remotecontrol of appliances using speech and gestures [28].
Balchandran et al. presented a novel prototype systemthat implemented a multi-modal interface to control a television [29]. The system combined a standard TV remote control with a dialog-management-based naturallanguage speech interface to allow users to interact efficiently with the TV. However, the system with speech
recognition sometimes became unstable due to recognition errors. We did not use speech interaction in ourstudy. The simulated interaction between a human and a
pet animal would make users feel more comfortable thana human-like interaction because Austermann et al. reported, users would feel more encouraged to touch an object with a pet-like appearance [19].
Osawa et al. proposed a unique approach to anthropomorphizing various appliances by attaching arms andeyes to them [30]. They actually developed artificial arms
and eyes and attached them to a refrigerator and a printer.
They also conducted experiments with participants andinvestigated user behaviors and their interpretations of theanthropomorphized appliances. Although their approach
was similar to that taken with Rebo in terms of making appliances more user-friendly by anthropomorphizing them,
the actual implementation was significantly different. We
tried to design a novel pet-like remote control for an appliance in contrast to their work, in which additional equipment such as arms and eyes is attached to a conventional
appliance.

7. Conclusion
We proposed a pet-like remote control, Rebo, to control
home electronic appliances and implemented a prototype
for operating an advanced TV system. Rebo has threemain advantages: user-friendliness, function awareness,and stroke manipulation. Its pet-like presence and facial
expressions make it seem friendly to users. We implemented facial expressions as life-like behaviors and video
image animations in feedback from a TV to enable users
to take note of its functions easily. We also conducted
experiments with participants to evaluate Rebo’s advantages, and the results confirmed the advantages in somesignificant aspects. Although the power on/off function
was not easy to manipulate, participants in the experiment

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Kobayashi, K. et al.

could select channels and change the sound volume with
Rebo as easily as with an IR remote.
In the next stage of our work, we will investigate theeffectiveness of function awareness and the possibility ofmaking a context-sensitive remote control.
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[13] K. Kobayashi, Y. Nakagawa, S. Yamada, S. Nakagawa, and Y. Saito,“Interaction Design for a Pet-Like Remote Control,” In Proc. of theInt. Conf. on Social Robotics, pp. 134-139, 2009.
[14] K. Kobayashi, Y. Nakagawa, S. Yamada, S. Nakagawa, and Y. Saito,“Rebo: A Remote Control with Strokes,” In Proc. of the Int. Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, pp. 751756, 2009.
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Name:
Kazuki Kobayashi

Affiliation:
Shinshu University

Address:
4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano City 380-8553, Japan

Brief Biographical History:
2006- Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Center for Human Media, Kwansei
Gakuin University
2008- Assistant Professor, Shinshu University

Main Works:• K. Kobayashi and S. Yamada, “Extending Commands Embedded in
Actions for Human-Robot Cooperative Tasks,” Int. J. of Social Robotics,
Vol.2, No.2, pp. 159-173, 2010.

Membership in Academic Societies:• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)• Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics (SOFT)• The Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence (JSAI)• The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers(IEICE)• Japan Human Interface Society (HIS)• The Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ)

Journal of Advanced Computational Intelligenceand Intelligent Informatics

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Rebo: A Pet-Like Strokable Remote Control

Name:

Name:

Seiji Yamada

Yasunori Saito

Affiliation:

Affiliation:

National Institute of Informatics

Shinshu University

Address:

Address:

2-1-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda, Tokyo 101-8430, Japan

4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano City, 380-8553 Japan

Brief Biographical History:

Brief Biographical History:

1989- Research Associate, Osaka University
1991- Lecturer, Osaka University
1996- Associate Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology
2002- Professor, National Institute of Informatics

1980- Assistant Professor, Shinshu University
1992- Associate Professor, Shinshu University
2004- Professor, Shinshu University

Main Works:• Y. Saito, “Laser-induced fluorescence as an index for monitoring plant
activity and productivity related to photosynthesis Research Signpost,”
pp. 236-251, Kerala, India, 2005.

• S. Yamada, “Evolutionary Behavior learning for Action-Based
Environment Modeling by a Mobile Robot,” Applied Soft Computing,
Vol.5, Issue 2, pp. 245-257, 2005.

Membership in Academic Societies:• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)• Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)• The Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence (JSAI)• Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ)• Japan Human Interface Society (HIS)Main Works:

Membership in Academic Societies:• Optical Society of America (OSA)• The Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP)• Optical Society of Japan (OSJ)• Laser Society of Japan (LSJ)• The Japanese Society of Agricultural Machinery (JSAM)

Name:
Shinobu Nakagawa

Affiliation:
Osaka University of Arts

Address:469 Higashiyama, Kanan-cho, Minami Kawachi-gun, Osaka 585-8555,
Japan

Brief Biographical History:
1990- Panasonic Corporation
2003- Lecturer, Kobe Design University
2007- Associate Professor, Osaka University of Arts

Main Works:• S. Nakagawa, “Robotics Design,” Bijutsu Shuppan Holdings Co., Ltd.,
2012.

Membership in Academic Societies:• Japan Human Interface Society (HIS)• The Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ)

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