Evaluation of physical marker interfaces for protecting visual privacy from mobile robots

摘要

We present a study that examines the efficiency and usability of three different interfaces for specifying which objects should be kept private (i.e., not visible) in an office environment. Our study context is a robot “janitor” system that has the ability to blur out specified objects from its video feed. One interface is a traditional point-and-click GUI on a computer monitor, while the other two operate in the real, physical space: users either place markers on the objects to indicate privacy or use a wand tool to point at them. We compare the interfaces using both self-report (e.g., surveys) and behavioral measures. Our results showed that (1) the graphical interface performed better both in terms of time and usability, and (2) using persistent markers increased the participants' ability to recall what they tagged. Choosing the right interface appears to depend on the application scenario. We also summarize feedback from the participants for improving interfaces that specify visual privacy preferences.