No abstract

Multi-modal behavior for social robots is crucial for the robot's perceived social intelligence, ability to communicate nonverbally, and the extent to which the robot can be trusted. However, most of the research conducted so far has been with only one modality, thus there is still a lack of understanding of the effect of each modality when performed in a multi-modal interaction. This study presents a multi-modal interaction focusing on the following modalities: proxemics for social navigation, gaze mechanisms (for turn-taking floor-holding, turn-yielding and joint attention), kinesics (for symbolic, deictic, and beat gestures), and social dialogue. The multi-modal behaviors were evaluated through an experiment with 105 participants in a seven minute interaction to analyze the effects on perceived social intelligence through both objective and subjective measurements. The results show various insights of the effect of modalities in a multi-modal interaction onto several behavioral outcomes of the users, including taking physical suggestions, distances maintained during the interaction, wave gestures performed in greeting and closing, back-channeling, and how socially the robot is treated, while having no effect on self-disclosure and subjective liking.

No abstract

The periapical local anesthetic injection may be associated with fear of needles and pain administration. Dental topical anesthetic agents can help to reduce pain perception; however, adverse events can occur. To investigate the efficacy of 1064-nm photobiomodualtion (PBM) in inducing mucosal anesthesia delivered with a flat-top hand-piece compared to 20% Benzocaine topical anesthetic gel, sixty healthy patients were randomly allocated (1:1) to either 20% benzocaine topical gel + placebo laser (T group) or PBM + placebo gel (L group). The 1064-nm Nd:YAG laser was employed and is associated with a novel flat-top hand piece. The applied operational parameters were 0.5 W, 10 Hz, 100 µs pulse width, and 30 J/cm2 for one-minute single application time. The enrolled subjects were asked to assess pain intensity at the time of anesthetic injection with a Visual Analog Scale. Taking into consideration taste, undesirable numbness, and overall satisfaction, the patients were asked to rate their experiences according to a verbal rating scale. Statistical analysis showed no statistically significant difference between the T and L Groups for pain ratings (p = 0.0596). The L Group displayed significantly higher ratings than T Group for taste, undesirable numbness, and overall satisfaction (p < 0.001). The 1064-nm PBM delivered by flat-top hand piece is effective in inducing mucosal anesthesia, eliminating the adverse side-effects of the conventional topical anesthetic gel.