Keith Evan Green

Dental clinics can be challenging sensory environments, creating discomfort and stress, especially for neurodivergent individuals with Sensory Processing Disorder. Interactive environmental systems offer potential to transform these spaces, providing adaptable, sensory-inclusive experiences. However, the design space for environment-based interventions in dental settings remains largely unexplored. To address this, we conducted in-depth 2-hour co-design sessions with 13 neurodivergent participants to explore environment-based strategies to meet diverse sensory needs. We identified five core design goals for inclusive dental environments: experience transformation, distraction, exposure management, restoration, and social facilitation. Our technology-agnostic design catalogue can inform multiple implementation approaches, including projection mapping, ambient displays, and responsive physical elements. We contribute design patterns for interactive environmental systems, methodological insights for participatory design with neurodivergent communities, and demonstrate how tangible materials serve as proxies for environmental interventions, with implications for Augmented Reality system design. This study advances inclusive design practices and highlights co-designing with neurodivergent individuals.

As domestic environments are increasingly required to meet diverse and changing human needs within constrained spaces, physical reconfigurability offers a promising solution. We developed a full-scale, manipulable room prototype as an exploratory co-design instrument, enabling participants to bodily explore and reflect on reconfigurable living spaces. Through 12 sessions with 30 participants involving brainstorming, bodystorming, and interviews, we identified spatial design patterns and elicited perspectives on reconfigurable domestic environments. Our findings contribute a design pattern catalogue for reconfigurable spaces, alongside insights into the lived experience of reconfigurability. We also discuss design principles, three affordance-based design dimensions that capture value tensions: empowering vs. restrictive, utilitarian vs. hedonic, and futuristic vs. practical, as well as lessons from co-design with a room-scale prototype. We demonstrate agile, room-scale prototyping as a methodological approach for spatial HCI research, advancing toward human-computer habitation, where interactive systems become inhabited built environments that support human values, creativity, and autonomy.

Eye contact between strangers, even fleeting, can spark interaction and foster connection, happiness, and belonging. Yet in public spaces, such encounters are often suppressed by “civil inattention,” with many people absorbed in their phones. We explore how reconfiguring the ambient environment with MirrorBot, a mobile robot with adaptive mirrors, can encourage social encounters by subtly redirecting glances. By shifting reflections between self- and mutual recognition, MirrorBot invites serendipitous eye contact, shared awareness, and low-stakes engagement. In a controlled 2×2 between-subjects study with 90 participants (45 dyads) across four conditions (MirrorBot, Bot-only, Mirror-only, and Control), we found that MirrorBot led participants to initiate conversation more often, feel greater closeness and togetherness, and have more enjoyable interactions. Our findings position robots not only as social agents but as socio-spatial interfaces that choreograph sight lines and shared attention in physical space, opening new possibilities for technologies that cultivate human connection in public life.

Brief eye contact with strangers can foster connection, belonging, and positive affect, yet such moments are often scarce in public spaces. This paper investigates how a spatially situated robot can reshape the visual field of a shared space to influence how strangers notice and respond to one another. We present MirrorBot, a mobile robot equipped with two actuated mirrors that dynamically redirect reflections to reshape sightlines between people. In a study with 32 strangers in 16 pairs in a waiting-room setting, MirrorBot elicited patterns such as low-stakes icebreaking, nonverbal synchrony, joint sensemaking, asymmetric engagement, and avoidance. Participants also attributed multiple roles to the robot, such as mediator, observer, magnifier, or disrupter, revealing that its social meaning was fluid and co-constructed. Our work extends HRI by showing that robots can act not only as conversational partners but also as spatial mediators, curating opportunities for human–human connection through the reconfiguration of spatial relationships

While robots are traditionally envisioned as physical entities that move through, sense, and act upon the environment, a new category is emerging: the inhabitable robot, or "robot-room," which redefines human-robot interaction by immersing us within the robot itself. As a first step in exploring this novel design space, we developed a full-scale, rapid-prototyped robot-room—not a simulation or scale model—and conducted a co-design study with 30 participants. Inside this immersive space, participants explored new forms of human-robot interaction, engaging their perceptual faculties for "knowing spaces." Our findings inform our ongoing development of a fully operational robot-room and offer valuable insights into expanding the concept of human-robot interaction to one of human-robot cohabitation.

We explore speculation ("wondering about how things could be") as a pedagogical tool for teaching HRI. We focus on the potential of speculation to create spaces for discussion and debate on future HRI scenarios. Drawing particularly on dystopian fiction, students are encouraged to imagine human-robot interactions that offer alternative, "possible futures" in response to the negative consequences of technology. This approach challenges traditional user-centered design by guiding students to prototype complex HRI systems. To illustrate this, we introduce the motivations for and the process of our approach and present case studies from our own course delivery. While our case study centers on designing robotic environments–an emerging subfield of HRI–we see the approach as broadly applicable to the design of social robots and other embodied forms of robotics.

This paper presents Light Everywhere, a robotic lighting system that enhances flexibility in domestic spaces by traversing walls and ceilings to provide real-time, task-based illumination. We report a field investigation, an online study, and a between-subjects experiment (N=26) using the WoZ approach comparing Light Everywhere with a conventional desk lamp, evaluating perceived comfort, control, and spatial utilization. Results show the robot supports adaptive behaviors and dynamic space usage. Findings highlight the potential of robotic lighting to redefine housing flexibility and user-driven environmental control, "shedding light" on a novel HRI and smart home design.

Central to the human experience is establishing a connection with individuals who are unfamiliar with one another—strangers. We describe results from a field study that deployed SocialStools , a socio-spatial interface with mixed-reality experience, to support ice-breaking between strangers in a public space. Synthesizing existing social psychology theories, we propose a human behavior framework with distinct, interconnected behavioral components, and then apply this framework as an instrument to analyze the “ice-breaking” process amongst 81 strangers assigned to 27 groups using SocialStools . Our analysis identifies recurring behavioral patterns that demonstrate the fluid and emergent nature of interpersonal spatial adjustments, emphasizing the dynamic aspects of proxemics. Our contributions are the results of our empirical field study with a socio-spatial interface that advances our understanding of how strangers interact when uninstructed, and a theory-based, behavioral framework—an analytical instrument to examine the dynamic experience of ice-breaking.

Eye contact, even momentarily between strangers, plays a pivotal role in fostering human connection, promoting happiness, and enhancing belonging. Yet, the physical rigidity of public spaces, such as airport terminals, often limits opportunities for meaningful interactions between strangers who often remain absorbed in their personal activities. This paper introduces Mirrorbot, a robotic mirror system that transforms static environments into dynamic, socio-spatial interfaces. Through autonomous navigation and adaptive mirror control, Mirrorbot facilitates serendipitous, non-verbal interactions by dynamically transitioning reflections from self-focused to mutual recognition, sparking eye contact, shared awareness, and playful engagement. By integrating mirrors—a familiar and accessible architectural element—Mirrorbot disrupts conventional isolation in public spaces, enabling embodied, accessible interactions that go beyond screen-based solutions. This work demonstrates the potential of interactive mirrors to enrich public spaces, fostering spontaneous connections in shared environments.

Social-robot peers provide new opportunities and benefits for children's education that robot tutors and learning tools cannot. One such opportunity is peer collaboration, which can improve cognitive and affective learning outcomes. We explore this opportunity with a non-humanoid collaborative robot system that we call “MAPLE,” a Multi-Agent Prosocial Learning Environment. In MAPLE, our robot, “Maple,” physically acts on its environment and coordinates its behaviors with children to complete a task that is both synchronous and collaborative. Findings from a preliminary interaction study involving 17 children suggest that perceived collaboration with a robot can positively influence children's engagement and motivation, particularly in contexts where collaboration is encouraged but not explicitly required. This work offers compelling insights for advancing child-robot collaboration.

Numerous studies have shown that clutter can negatively affect people’s health and well-being. Understanding human organizational behavior in domestic environments is a vital step in creating a smart, sustainable architectural vision for the future. By embedding assistive technologies in architecture, we can enhance the ambient environment to improve life quality. This chapter illustrates this vision by introducing a multi-robot, wall-climbing organizer system called SORT, aimed to assist a broad range of users in managing personal items at home, particularly for those who are affected by various mobility impairments. Here, we report on the iterative process of designing and fabricating the robot group, followed by a user study that confirmed the usability of our prototypes. Qualitative insights provided here can help future design researchers better understand user’s organizational behaviors, decision-making, and logic hierarchies, preferences on robot number and speed, and perception of robot gestures. Finally, we present an illustration showing how the robots may form a suite with other domestic assistants to leverage and enhance the ambient environment. The work reported here represents a step forward in exploring smart designs with enabling technologies and user studies in human-environment interaction for everyday spaces, with an aim to improving life quality.

We report on the effects of a novel soft robot of our design on emotional wellbeing. Participants (N=94) engaged with our soft robotic surface designed to simulate the benefits of nature and provide a therapeutic behavioral intervention. The study assessed group differences in attention, perceived restorativeness, and self-reported stress between three groups: a group that performed a breathing exercise with the robot, a group that watched the robot perform an ocean-inspired movement designed to capture involuntary attention, and a control where the robot was static. The Breathing Group had a significant reduction in self-reported stress compared to the Control Group. Significant differences in attention and perceived restoration were not found. Qualitative feedback suggested the robot did provide a positive distraction in the environment and participants were generally favorable to the robot, characterizing it as soothing and fascinating. Feedback on the sensory qualities showed that people who did not initially enjoy the texture or sound often acclimated to the novelty of the surface with improved perceptions over time. These findings suggest the promise of soft robots to support mental wellbeing.

We are developing soft robotic surfaces to support emotional wellbeing for people with limited access to nature. This work explores how biophilic design (based on the theory that humans have an evolutionary desire to connect with nature) can be applied to interactive systems. We describe a generative design tool that produces a bio-inspired digital prototype of a soft robotic surface. In our workflow, participants walked outdoors to photograph natural features in their environment. The photographs are used to generate a set of corresponding designs. As early validation, we conducted a small user study to test the robustness of our tool with different photographic inputs. We also collected feedback on how the workflow influenced participants’ perceptions of the design outcomes. The results guided the fabrication of a new physical prototype and demonstrated the utility of our approach, which aims to inform the design of future biophilic cyber-physical systems.

Children who live in out-of-home, residential care facilities have typically experienced adversity and trauma and consequentially exhibit psychological distress (e.g., despair, detachment). Residential care facilities are understaffed while needing to establish a healthy liaison between staff and children. This lamentable state of affairs has become more pressing following the Covid-19 pandemic. With expertise in design, robotics, interaction design, cognitive science, developmental psychology, and early childhood education, our research team has designed three early robotic prototypes that we call “e,” “Mo," and “Bo,” in our longer design endeavor to develop “eMoBo,” an interactive, non-humanoid robot for young children living in residential care facilities to playfully express themselves. The aim of this child-centered project is to provide the opportunity for children who have experienced hostile environments and inappropriate care to become aware of, regulate, and express their inner socio-emotional world via tactile and visual experimentation with eMoBo so that they might more easily communicate their feelings and needs with non-biological caregivers, striving for a significant, long-standing improvement in the wellbeing of these children. In this paper, we present our designs and envision their use in two use cases. The three prototypes will be shared with our research partners, the Hillside Residential Center (Rochester, New York) towards advancing the design of eMoBo with the Center's stakeholders.

Interacting with strangers can be beneficial but also challenging. Fortunately, these challenges can lead to design opportunities. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a socio-spatial interface, SocialStools, that leverages the human propensity for embodied interaction to foster togetherness between strangers. SocialStools is an installation of three responsive stools on caster wheels that generate sound and imagery in the near environment as three strangers sit on them, move them, and rotate them relative to each other. In our study with 12 groups of three strangers, we found a sense of togetherness emerged through interaction, evidenced by different patterns of socio-spatial movements, verbal communication, non-verbal behavior, and interview responses. We present our findings, articulate reasons for the cultivation of togetherness, consider the unique social affordances of our spatial interface in shifting attention during interpersonal communication, and provide design implications. This research contributes insights toward designing cyber-physical interfaces that foster interaction and togetherness among strangers at a time when cultivating togetherness is especially critical.