Research

Illustration by Matilda Kalving depicting a human and a robot engaging in eye contact, symbolizing the field of human-robot interaction and human-centered AI research. Because IHTE (Human-Centered Technology) research group at Tampere University specializes in human-technology interaction, AI design, social robotics in education, sustainable technology, and youth participation platforms

Focusing on User Experience and Sustainability

Technology products and services are increasingly part of all facets of people’s every day lives. Smooth human-technology interaction and delighting user experience are major contributors to utilising technology successfully to improve people’s quality of life. At the same time we face major challenges in sustainability of our lifestyles and of the world at large. IHTE research group is committed to advancing technological developments for sustainable future.

The major research approach in IHTE‘s research is design research, more specifically research through design. We conduct design efforts utilising methods of human-centered design such as interviews, observations and surveys, followed up with co-design, workshops and user evaluation studies. The design research outcomes provide theoretical contributions in form of design guidelines and new models of user experience and human-technology interaction.

Research topics and projects

IHTE‘s research is multidisciplinary by nature, combining knowledge from technical and humanistic fields. The research is often conducted in cooperation with industry and other research units. Most of IHTE‘s research funding is external and comes from competitive sources such as Academy of Finland, Business Finland, EU and various national sources.

MediaRoboLit65+ 2023–2027

MediaRoboLit 65+ focuses on the potential challenges of the present mediatized and digitalized information environment for citizens over 65 years of age, who may lack adequate media and robot literacies to support their lifelong learning, well-being, and participation in society. To use the increasing amount of information disseminated through media, citizens need media literacies: competencies in accessing, evaluating, and creating media messages across a variety of contexts.

In this project, robots are considered the next new media as they are becoming more popular as providers of information and services. The increasing use of robots requires citizens to have robot literacy, that is, competences to understand and interact with robots. IHTE studies older adults’ robot literacy, and how to enhance it with robot-assisted solutions. Developing “Robotour for Seniors” co-learning model to enhance the seniors’ robot literacy. So far, we have studied the model in three care homes at Pirkanmaa, and in three locations in Samiland.

Contact: Aino Ahtinen, aino.ahtinen@tuni.fi
Read more: MediRoboLit+65 – website

Mixed Fleet 2023 - 2026

In the Mixed Fleet project IHTE focuses focuses on human-centered research and design to understand human behavior, experience, and roles in collaboration between manned and unmanned machines in various mixed fleet environments (e.g., indoor warehouse logistics, outdoor logistics).

Through participatory design, field studies, and knowledge from psychology, the research explores how people perceive these work environments and identifies the models necessary for seamless collaboration. It also examines natural communication and interaction methods between humans and machines.

Contact: Aino Ahtinen, aino.ahtinen@tuni.fi
Read more: www.fima.fi/mixedfleet

GameIN - Gamified and Digital Methods for Youth Participation 2024–2026

The GameIN Erasmus+ project that aims at mapping out digital and gamified participation methods and publishing the findings. It also pilots and refines the most promising methods with youth in different European countries in real-life situations. It visualizes and gathers the methods into an accessible online method bank service.

The project also disseminates the online method bank and encourages organizations and youth workers to use the tried and tested innovative participation methods.

Contact: Jari Varsaluoma, jari.varsaluoma@tuni.fi

An illustration depicting the GameIN project – Gamified and Digital Methods for Youth Participation, exploring interactive platforms for engaging young people in decision-making and community development.

Robostudio

Robostudio is a multidisciplinary co-learning space to work with lovely social robots. It is dedicated for educational purposes and the activity is strongly connected to research as well. Social Robotics course runs in this space, as well as social robotics-related thesis projects. We have hundreds of visitors (school groups, research groups etc) every year. Robostudio collaborates tightly with Juniversity.

Contact: Aino Ahtinen, aino.ahtinen@tuni.fi
Read more: RoboStudio | Tampere universities
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INPERSO

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An illustration from the INDUSTRYX project featuring industrial robots and human-machine collaboration in modern manufacturing environments

IndustryX 2022-2025

The Industry X project enables technology solution providers to establish the added value of digital edge and XR solutions. Through the development and demonstration of new services and technologies, the project aims to further enhance the competence of the metaverse ecosystem.

In particular, Industry X will tackle key barriers to adopting digital edge and XR technology in utilities, including edge computing, systems integration, and interoperability. The project focuses on strengthening Finnish companies and academia in becoming global leaders in edge-enabled research and technology within the industry 5G domain. This leadership will be realized on different fronts including academic research, product R&D, technology development and international collaboration including standardization.

Contact: Maria Hartikainen, maria.hartikainen@tuni.fi
Read more: industryx.dimecc.com

AI-DOC: Human-GenAI Collaboration in Creative Tasks 2024-2027

IHTE contributes to the The Finnish Doctoral Program Network in Artificial Intelligence (AI-DOC), with a doctoral research project about Human-GenAI Collaboration in Creative Tasks: Creative Industry Perspective. Focusing on Human-AI collaboration in creative industries, and exploring how Generative AI (GenAI) influences creative tasks like design and writing. The project is supervised by Kaisa Väänänen and Thomas Olsson, executed by Matilda Kalving.

Contact: Matilda Kalving, matilda.kalving@tuni.fi
Read more: fcai.fi/ai-doc/

IHTE and AI-DOC funding support research in Human-AI Collaboration, focusing on intelligent systems, co-creative processes, and responsible technology design

All Youth Want To Rule Their World (ALL-YOUTH), 2018–2023

ALL-YOUTH – All youth want to rule their world is a multidisciplinary research project which explores the capacities of young people (aged between 16 and 25) and the obstacles that hamper their engagement with society. We also explore the visions of youth regarding sustainable future, growth and well-being. The main goal of IHTE’s research in ALL-YOUTH project is to create digital possibilities and to enable young people to participate in making their own communities and the society.

ALL-YOUTH is funded by Strategic Research Council of Finland, a funding organisation for societal impact, associated with Academy of Finland. Contact: Kaisa Väänänen, Jari Varsaluoma.

Persuasive Social Robots for Youth Participation in Digital Civics (RoboCivics), 2019-2023

RoboCivics project investigates how social robots can be designed to motivate and facilitate youth in civic participation in the domain of sustainable development. Applying persuasive interaction techniques in social robot design has the potential to entice their users to new types of behaviour. In RoboCivics, social robots will be co-designed with the youth (15-24 years) to gain understanding of the youth’s perspectives to desirable and effective forms of social robot interaction. The main objective of RoboCivics is to create new scientific knowledge about interaction models of persuasive social robots that can motivate youth to civic participation. The results of RoboCivics will help youth become more active societally and support designers in creation of acceptable designs in the future society populated with social robots. The scientific results will significantly advance academic understanding of the human-centered design of persuasive social robots.

RoboCivics is funded by Academy of Finland. Contact: Kaisa Väänänen, Kirsikka Kaipainen

Social robots as learning assistants, 2018-

Social robots can be utilized in schools for several learning tasks and for improving kids’ motivation. Our research investigates the long-term user experience of social robots in the classroom context by exploring the perspectives of pupils, teachers and parents. The research is conducted in several primary schools in Tampere. So far, the findings are encouraging with the social robot Elias (link:http://www.eliasrobot.com/). The kids enjoy learning with Elias and it has the ability to motivate kids by several means. Contact: Aino Ahtinen

AI Hub Tampere, 2019-2021

AI Hub Tampere is a new artificial intelligence research center hosted by Tampere University and funded by public instruments. Our principle is to make AI easy to reach and affordable. Among other things, AI Hub involves a work package to study and improve human-machine interaction on intelligent machines. Design, development and evaluation of novel interaction methods mainly for industrial robots is one of the tasks included. On this wp, IHTE works in close collaboration with TAU Robolab.

is funded by EU’s ESR funds, provided via Pirkanmaa municipality (Pirkanmaan liitto). Contact: Aino Ahtinen

Sustainable Tourism Mobility, 2021-2023

The aim of the Sustainable Tourism Mobility project is to develop low-carbon mobility solutions for tourism in Pirkanmaa region. IHTE’s research focuses on human-centered design and evaluation of new service concepts.

Sustainable Tourism Mobility project is funded by the Council of Tampere Region, REACT-ERDF EU funding. Contact: Kirsikka Kaipainen

Human-Centered AI Solutions for the Smart City 2019-2022

Acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI) applications requires that the developers of AI solutions consider end-users’ needs and concerns. This project focuses on co-creation of AI solutions and their design methods with companies utilizing applied research on human-centred technology.

The aim is to create knowledge and skills in the design and development of AI solutions that are meaningful, understandable, acceptable and ethically sustainable for their users. Targeted solution domains are chosen from the central AI application domains of the smart city, e,g, smart traffic, city’s decision making processes and sustainable development.

Human-Centered AI Solutions for the Smart City project is funded by EU’s EAKR funds, provided via Pirkanmaa municipality (Pirkanmaan liitto). Contact: Maria Hartikainen

Sustainable Tourism Hub, 2018-2020

The aim of the project is to build a centre of carbon-neutral travel services in the area of Särkänniemi in the city of Tampere. IHTE’s research contributes to the human-centered design of the sustainable travel services.

Sustainable Tourism Hub project is funded by EU’s EAKR funds, provided via Pirkanmaa municipality (Pirkanmaan liitto). Contact: Kirsikka Kaipainen, Kaisa Väänänen

Living Lab Bus (LLB), 2016-2019

The practical goal of the Living Lab Bus (LLB) project is to enable the development, testing and demonstration of various services and technologies by using innovative electric buses as a concrete platform in a real use environment. The research goal of IHTE is to develop and investigate design tools for development of persuasive digital services for the bus transportation context.

Living Lab Bus project is funded by Business Finland. Contact: Kaisa Väänänen, Elina Hilden