[论文解读] Relational Appliances: A Robot in the Refrigerator for Home-Based Health Promotion

Timothy Bickmore, Mehdi Arjmand+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Feb 26, 2026

Social Robot Interaction and HRI被引用 0

一句话总结

论文提出 NOM，这是一个被嵌入在冰箱内部的人形机器人头，以促进更健康的零食选择，并报告了一项家庭内 Pilot 研究，显示对健康零食的遵从性提高以及对关系型设备的积极接受。

ABSTRACT

Kitchen appliances are frequently used domestic artifacts situated at the point of everyday dietary decision making, making them a promising but underexplored site for health promotion. We explore the concept of relational appliances: everyday household devices designed as embodied social actors that engage users through ongoing, personalized interaction. We focus on the refrigerator, whose unique affordances, including a fixed, sensor-rich environment, private interaction space, and close coupling to food items, support contextualized, conversational engagement during snack choices. We present an initial exploration of this concept through a pilot study deploying an anthropomorphic robotic head inside a household refrigerator. In a home-lab apartment, participants repeatedly retrieved snacks during simulated TV "commercial breaks" while interacting with a human-sized robotic head. Participants were randomized to either a health-promotion condition, in which the robot made healthy snack recommendations, or a social-chat control condition. Outcomes included compliance with recommendations, nutritional quality of selected snacks, and psychosocial measures related to acceptance of the robot. Results suggest that participants found the robot persuasive, socially engaging, and increasingly natural over time, often describing it as helpful, aware, and companionable. Most participants reported greater awareness of their snack decisions and expressed interest in having such a robot in their own home. We discuss implications for designing relational appliances that leverage anthropomorphism, trust, and long-term human-technology relationships for home-based health promotion.

研究动机与目标

• 通过将一个具有社交主动性的代理嵌入到常见家用电器中，激励更健康的零食决策。
• 探索在家庭环境中作为社交行为体的关系型设备的设计空间。
• 评估具象化冰箱代理的用户接受度、感知有用性和关系动态。
• 评估简短、时间受限的互动是否能在多次接触中影响现实世界的饮食选择。

提出的方法

• 使用 Furhat Robotics Gen 2 将一个与人类大小相当、带有面部投射的机器人头嵌入到冰箱内来设计并实现 NOM。
• 采用时间受限的对话模式以适应简短的冰箱互动，在前端传达简明的说服信息。
• 使用 Wizard-of-Oz 控制在现实约束下模拟 NOM 的对话时序与连贯性。
• 在冰箱中放入 Nutri-Score 评级项（A/B 与 D/E 对比），并将说服内容定制为健康选项。
• 将参与者随机分配到促进健康（INTERVENTION）或非说服性社交（CONTROL）条件，在重复的零食机会中进行测试。
• 收集定量测量（遵从、开门/选择时间、MFT 健康食品选择、接受度量表）以及定性访谈数据来评估体验。

Figure 1: User Interacting with Nutrition Optimization Module (NOM).

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 在冰箱内嵌入具象化对话代理是否能提高对健康零食推荐的遵从性？
• RQ2 在零食决策时刻，用户如何感知并响应一个具有社交存在感、时间受限的设备型倡导者？
• RQ3 在接近家庭场景的互动中，互动动态包括对社交聊天和非语言线索的参与情况如何？
• RQ4 在日常生活中遇到关系型设备时，潜在的心理社会效应（信任、融洽、内疚、认可）有哪些细微差异？

主要发现

• INTERVENTION 条件的参与者在 NOM 建议的遵从率为 54.9%（对比基线机会 21.3%，p = .005）。
• INTERVENTION 组在健康零食选择上占比 73.1%（SD 18.0%）对比 CONTROL 的 56.3%（SD 29.3%）（统计上不显著，p = .117）。
• 零食选择平均用时在 INTERVENTION 较 CONTROL 更短（14.3 s，SD 6.5 vs 21.4 s，SD 11.2），p < .001。
• 两组的冰箱门开启时间平均无显著差异（p = .31）。
• 参与者在 UTAUT 各维度上表现出积极的技术接受度，INTERVENTION 在感知有用性方面显著更高（p < .01）；其他接受度维度普遍较高，且组间不总是显著差异。
• 定性结果突出显示决策支持收益、社交存在感的影响、确认/内疚的动态，以及关系型设备随时间的常态化。

Figure 2: Some of the candidate robots who auditioned for NOM.