Marching Bear: An Interface System Encouraging User's Emotional Attachment and Providing an Immersive Experience

We developed an interface system called "Marching Bear," where the robot controller's motions were reflected in the motions of certain characters appearing on a computer display. We then conducted a simple experiment to investigate the effectiveness of this interface system to see whether users felt that this interface system was enjoyable. We used a questionnaire and conducted an observation to determine whether users could direct the robot's arms in such a way as to make the character walk. We also investigated the effectiveness of our interface system with two displays, one large, the other small. The results were that most participants felt this system was enjoyable and that they could direct the robot's arms in the way needed to make the character walk. The larger display had a significantly stronger effect on the participants' emotional aspects; they felt that the character had some emotions and that they could communicate with the character well. Therefore, the interface system, Marching Bear, was not only enjoyable for users because of the robot controls, but also this type of interface system may become a users' companion or be perceived as an independent character.