Concept

A small personal robot that helps you in social situations.

Problem Space

Our team has identified two problems individuals face in social situations.
(1) When an individual wants to maintain a social distance with others, they have to talk and interact with them to tell them to leave them alone, which can be rude and awkward for both parties.
(2) When an individual wants to socialize and communicate with others, they have to ask or take the initiative to join in a conversation. This might cause social pressure or another awkward situation for an individual. Especially if they are shy or timid.

Intended Concept

Spud is a small robot that solves the problem space. It is able to sense someone coming close to you and listen to its surroundings. It also expresses itself by moving its eyebrows, head and arms. It has two different modes that can be chosen depending your mood: an alert mode or a friendly mode. The alert mode is used in a situation where you want some alone time and some peace and quiet. Spud will help tell others to stay away so you don’t have to feel awkward when doing it yourself. The friendly mode is used when you feel like socializing with others and making friends. Spud will be friendly towards others and you can show off Spud by making it do small tricks.

Spud and The Helping Hand both have the same concept but they are in two different forms. Helping Hand uses hand gestures to convey emotion while Spud uses facial expressions and body language.

Intended Experience

Spud is portable and used in different social situations, it will be brought around places sitting on the user’s shoulder or placed on a flat surface beside the user. This will allow the user and whoever that the user encounters to interact with it easily.

Alert

In this mode, Spud will be aware of the people around you. When it senses someone coming towards you, it will turn angry as a warning. If this is ignored, it will use a more aggressive method of shaking its head and putting its hand up to stop the person.

Spud also reacts to loud noises. If someone is being noisy or speaking loudly to you, Spud will become afraid and cover its ears to make the person stop.