Cristina GenaUniversità degli Studi di Torino | UNITO · Dipartimento di Informatica
Cristina Gena
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About
187
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Introduction
Cristina Gena currently works at the Dipartimento di Informatica, Università degli Studi di Torino. Cristina does research in Human-computer Interaction and Intelligent User Interfaces. Her current projects are 'robot for kids, and kids with special nees', BCI for impaired users .
Publications
Publications (187)
In recent years, robotics has evolved, placing robots in social contexts, and giving rise to Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). HRI aims to improve user satisfaction by designing autonomous social robots with user modeling functionalities and user-adapted interactions, storing data on people to achieve personalized interactions. Personality, a vital fa...
Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly becoming pervasive in everyday life of everyone. In this setting, developing correct AI conception since childhood is not only a need to be addressed in educational curricula, but is also a children right. Accordingly, several initiatives at national and international levels aim at promoting AI and emerging te...
In this paper we report the result of an analysis aiming at investigating, among different virtually embodied social robots (endowed with different degrees of dialogical complexity), the perceived difference in emotion attribution and understanding by the human users interacting with them. In particular, in our case study, the most complex dialogic...
In the context of our research activities on affective computing and human-robot interaction we are working on both the recognition of human's emotions and the expression of emotions by robots. In our vision, robots will be increasingly present in schools, factories, and homes, and their empathetic behavior may foster their acceptance. In particula...
This paper describes the opportunities of multimodality in the field of robot-to-human communication. In the proposed approach, the coordinated and integrated use of multimedia elements, i.e., text, images, and animations, with the robot's speech plays a very important role in the overall effectiveness of the communicative act. The reference robot...
This paper outlines the evolution of the Sugar, Salt, Pepper project for high level functioning children affected by autism, focusing on the development of a dialogue system that relies on an ontology-based knowledge base. The ontology offers a formal representation of knowledge and interrelationships within the movie domain. The dialogue system ad...
This paper presents an experimental study showing that the humanoid robot NAO, in a condition already validated with regards to its capacity to trigger situational empathy in humans, is able to stimulate the attribution of mental states towards itself. Indeed, results show that participants not only experienced empathy towards NAO, when the robot w...
The aim of the current research is to analyse and discover, in a real context, behaviours, reactions and modes of interaction of social actors (people) with the humanoid robot Pepper. Indeed, we wanted to observe in a real, highly frequented context, the reactions and interactions of people with Pepper, placed in a shop window, through a systematic...
This article describes the preliminary qualitative results of a therapeutic laboratory involving the Pepper robot, as a facilitator, to promote autonomy and functional acquisition in autistic children with low support needs (level 1 support). The lab, designed and led by a multidisciplinary team, involved 4 children, aged 11 to 13 years, and was or...
This article presents an affective-based sensemaking system for grouping and suggesting stories created by the users about the cultural artefacts in a museum. By relying on the TCL commonsense reasoning framework, the system exploits the spatial structure of the Plutchik’s “wheel of emotions” to organize the stories according to their extracted emo...
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are one of the few alternatives to enable locked-in syndrome (LIS) patients to communicate with the external world, while they are the only solution for complete locked-in syndrome (CLIS) patients, who lost the ability to control eye movements. However, successful usage of endogenous electroencephalogram(EEG)-based...
User ratings are widely used in web systems and applications to provide personalized interaction and to help other users make better choices. Previous research has shown that rating scale features and user personality can both influence users' rating behaviour, but relatively little work has been devoted to understanding if the effects of rating sc...
In this paper, we report on three experiments we have carried out in the context of the EMPATHY project, with the aim of helping users make better configuration choices in a smart home environment, and discuss our results. We found that there are psychological traits, such as Need for Cognition, which influence the way individuals tend to use recom...
The continuously increasing number of connected objects and sensors is opening up the possibility of introducing automations in many domains to better support people in their activities. However, such automations to be effective should be under the user control. Unfortunately, people often report difficulties in understanding the surrounding automa...
This extended abtract describes the preliminary qualitative results coming from a therapeutic laboratory focused on the use of the Pepper robot to promote autonomies and functional acquisitions in highly functioning (Asperger) children with autism. The field lab, ideated and led by a multidisciplinary team, involved 4 children, aged 11-13, who atte...
Recently, it has been considering robotics to face world population aging. According to the WHO, in 2050 there will be about 2.1 billion people over 60 years old worldwide causing a persistent growing need of assistance and a shortage of manpower for delivering congruous assistance. Therefore, seniors' QoL is continuously threatened. Socially Assis...
This article presents an affective based sensemaking system for grouping and suggesting stories created by the users about the items of a museum. By relying on the TCL commonsense reasoning framework1, the system exploits the spatial structure of the Plutchik's wheel of emotions to organize the stories according to their extracted emotions. The pro...
The work presented in this paper was carried out in the context of the project Girls and boys: one day at university promoted by the City of Turin together with the University of Turin. We were responsible for two educational activities on robotics and coding hosted at the Computer Science Department, which made one of its laboratories available fo...
The brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are interfaces that put the user in communication with an electronic device based on signals originating from the brain. In this paper, we describe a proof of concept that took place within the context of BciAi4Sla, a multidisciplinary project involving computer scientists, physiologists, biomedical engineers, ne...
A social robot is an autonomous robot that interact with people by engaging in social emotive behaviors, skills, capacities, and rules attached to its collaborative role. In order to achieve these goals we believe that modeling the interaction with the user and adapt the robot behavior to the user herself are fundamental for its social role. This p...
This paper introduces the project Social Assistive Robotics for Autistic Children aimed at using robotic therapy for autism. The goal of the project is testing autistic children's interactions with the social robot NAO. In particular the robot will support the operators (psychologists, educators, speech therapists etc.) in their work. The innovativ...
During the 2017-18 academic year we carried out a series of coding activities, lasting about 3 months, in a third of the Giulia Falletti primary school in Barolo in Turin (Gena et a., 2020). These activities aimed to teach students not only the basics of programming, but also to introduce a new language and a new way of thinking and solving problem...
In this survey paper, we focus on smart interactive technologies and providing a picture of the current state of the art, exploring the way new discoveries and recent technologies changed workers’ operations and activities on the factory floor. We focus in particular on the Industry 4.0 and 5.0 visions, wherein smart interactive technologies can br...
During the 2017-18 academic year we carried out a series of coding activities (lasting about 3 months) in a third of the Giulia Falletti primary school in Barolo in Turin. Taking inspiration from the results of this activity, we then co-designed an educational robot with the children and evaluated the first release with them. Unpublished materials,...
While recommendations can be considered useful for any user, how users reacts to a recommendation depends on their specific features.Our solution: to offer non-personalized/personalized recommendations i.e. adapting
the quantity and timing of recommendation
the need of explanations and of which details
to user features
skills
habits and goals (ener...
Personality traits such as Need for Cognition, Locus of Control, Mindset and Self-efficacy could impact the perception, acceptance and appreciation of recommendations provided to support configuration tasks in the End User Development (EUD) context. In this paper we describe the user model services we have developed to measure such traits. These se...
Including local participation in cultural heritage management has always been a concern since the Venice Charter so far (1964). In addition, the Faro Convention (2005) shifted focus from cultural heritage values to the values of cultural heritage for society. In this case, it is necessary to achieve the maximum engagement of stakeholders in all sta...
Our Computer science k-12 education research group and the educational toy company Quercetti have been collaborating together to design and manufacture toys that help stimulate and consolidate so-called computational thinking. This approach is inspired by methods already consolidated in the literature and widespread worldwide such as the Bebras tas...
In this paper we present an educational robot called Wolly, designed to engage children in an affective and social interaction. Indeed, we are now focusing on its role as an educational and affective robot capable of being controlled by coding instructions and at the same time interacting verbally and affectively with children by recognizing their...
This position paper introduces the results of an initial card sorting experiment based on the reactions and questions of a group of children with autism working with a humanoid robot in a therapeutic laboratory on autonomy.
This paper introduces an experimental trial that will take place from February to June 2021, and which will see the use of the Pepper robot in a therapeutic laboratory on autonomies that will promote functional acquisitions in children diagnosed with high functioning autism/Asperger's syndrome.
In this paper we present an open source educational robot, designed both to engage children in an affective and social interaction, and to be programmable also in its social and affective behaviour. Indeed the robot, in addition to classic programming tasks, can also be programmed as a social robot. In addition to movements, the user can make the r...
In the invited talk at KDAH 2018 workshop (CIKM 2018 conference) I have presented two projects carried out in our HCI lab and target to child: the first one is related to the evaluation in the wild of of a storytelling app for kids based on the swipe story approach, the second one is related to Wolly, an educational robot co-designed with children.
This paper describes the use of UX Personas for defining a stable character for the Pepper robot. This approach generated from the first analysis of the social interactions that occurred between Pepper and a group of children with autism working with the robot in a therapeutic laboratory on autonomy.
Brain-Computer Interfaces allow interaction between the voluntarily produced human cerebral activity and a computer. The output produced by the user’s performance can serve as an input to the technologic device that can decode this information and transform it to a command. Literature has usually focused on processing and classification often negle...
This paper describes the Nao_PRM application aimed at expanding the limited functionality of the simulated Nao robot, already integrated into the Choregraphe application, creating a robot simulation with all the required functionalities for social interaction.
This paper presents our first attempt to integrate user modeling features in social and affective robots. We propose a cloud-based architecture for modeling the user-robot interaction in order to re-use the approach with different kind of social robots.
This paper describes two empirical evaluations we carried out in the context of an Industry 4.0 project, where we explored the use of touchless gestural interaction on the shop floor.
Community participation in cultural heritage conservation has been a concern since the Venice Charter (1964) so far. This approach has also been highlighted in the World Heritage documents. In this case, it is necessary to engage local people in all stages of protection, con- servation and management. In addition, the Faro Convention (2005) emphasi...
This paper describes a Google funded project devoted to the training of teachers (primary and secondary school) to coding and educational robotics through an open e-learning platform containing lessons and activities devoted to them. We will also introduce the open source educational robot we are realizing and releasing for that purpose.
Nowadays, most interactive social systems allow users to react to their contents and exploit user reactions to provide intelligent behaviours, such as adaptation or recommendation. Therefore, carefully understanding and designing the user/system dialogue that revolves around reaction provisioning is a crucial aspect. In this paper, we introduce the...
This year, the 28th (and the first virtual) ACM International Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization (UMAP 2020, virtually in Genoa, Italy, July 12-18, 2020) was held virtually due to Covid-19 pandemic. UMAP is the premier international conference for researchers and practitioners working on systems that adapt to individual us...
Interest in and development of touchless gestural interfaces has recently exploded, fueled by the diffusion of both commercial midair gesture platforms and public interactive displays. This paper focuses on an application based on Microsoft Kinect that allows students to browse a university website, hosted on a public display, through simple gestur...
This paper describes a Google Educator funded project devoted to the training of teachers (primary and secondary school) through an e-learning platform that will introduce them to educational robotics using Wolly, a social, educational and affective robot.
This paper describes a Google Educator funded project devoted to the training of teachers (primary and secondary school) through an e-learning platform that will introduce them to educational robotics using Wolly, a social, educational and affective robot.
In a previous work we introduced a classification of types of intelligence in smart physical objects, discussing how they can be taken into account when designing an object. In a later one we focused on a specific task – interactive adaptive support and recommendation to people — and we analyzed in detail the design of smart objects performing this...
In this paper we study whether visualizations based on color maps can encourage the intuitive interpretation of detailed descriptions, as the ones proposed in the formal model UPRISE, designed to ana- lyze interactive system components, such as reaction tools, which allow users to provide reactions. We carried out a between-subjects experiment wher...
In this paper we describe the approach and the initial results obtained in the design and implementation of a social and educational robot called Wolly. We involved kids as co-designer helping us in shaping form and behavior of the robot, then we proceeded with the design and implementation of the hardware and software components, characterizing th...
This paper introduces the project Social Assistive Robotics for Autistic Children aimed at using robotic therapy for autism. The goal of the project is testing autistic children’s interactions with the social robot NAO. In particular the robot will support the operators (psychologists, educators, speech therapists etc.) in their work. The innovativ...
A social robot is an autonomous robot that interact with people by engaging in social emotive behaviors, skills, capacities, and rules attached to its collaborative role. In order to achieve these goals we believe that modeling the interaction with the user and adapt the robot behavior to the user herself are fundamental for its social role. This p...
This paper presents iCommunity, an application that will be aimed at finding a universal method for inclusive societies in decision-making processes for cultural heritage management. iCommunity is being designed as a mobile application facilitating public participation in cultural heritage management. The main idea is to give all people, who are af...
Aiming at granting wide access to their contents, online information providers often choose not to have registered users, and therefore must give up personalization. In this paper, we focus on the case of non-personalized news recommender systems, and explore persuasive techniques that can, nonetheless, be used to enhance recommendation presentatio...