Designing speech-based interfaces for telepresence robots for people with disabilities

Abstract

People with cognitive and/or motor impairments may benefit from using telepresence robots to engage in social activities. To date, these robots, their user interfaces, and their navigation behaviors have not been designed for operation by people with disabilities. We conducted an experiment in which participants (n=12) used a telepresence robot in a scavenger hunt task to determine how they would use speech to command the robot. Based upon the results, we present design guidelines for speech-based interfaces for telepresence robots.