Evaluating Human-Robot Interaction with Ethnography

In the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) the concept of ethnography is not unheard of. It is, however, often misunderstood and seen as a methodology that has no scientific validity or it is misused in practice. The aim of this chapter is to offer researchers that are unfamiliar with ethnography a brief overview of the most important aspects of ethnography and guide HRI researchers towards a better understanding and use of ethnography in HRI research. This is done to show that ethnography has a role to play within the HRI field and that it is a scientific methodology with its own quality criteria. A small meta-review of the current status and use of ethnography in the field of HRI is used to guide the chapter and illustrate with HRI based examples, what is being done and what is needed.

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