A robot with two mirrors placed between strangers prompted conversations and eye contact in a waiting room, showing technology can help people connect socially.
Technology has made the world feel “smaller” but has often separated people, as mobile phones and other devices capture our attention. Researchers at Cornell University are using technology to reconnect individuals. The Architectural Robotics Lab has developed a four-foot-tall robot, called MirrorBot, with two mirrors. When placed between two strangers, each person can see themselves in one mirror and the other person in the second mirror.
In a study conducted in a waiting-room setting, a robot called MirrorBot encouraged conversations, playful exchanges, and other interactions between strangers. The findings suggest that robots can serve not only as conversational partners but also as spatial mediators.
The study involved 32 participants, ages 18 to 50, who were initially told they were taking part in a short-term memory task. Pairs were seated in a waiting room with three chairs along one wall of a 12-by-12-foot space. After a brief pause, MirrorBot appeared from behind a screen. The robot, small and covered in soft material to avoid intimidation, was teleoperated to position its dual mirrors so that each participant could see their own reflection and that of the other person.
The presence of MirrorBot elicited a range of responses. In most groups, the first meaningful contact between participants occurred through the mirrors rather than direct face-to-face interaction. Some participants explored the robot together, some interacted with it, and others used the mirrors to gauge the other person’s receptiveness. A few participants, however, felt uncomfortable, sometimes turning away or reacting with visible awkwardness, highlighting the importance of social technology knowing when to initiate and when to step back.
A follow-up study compared MirrorBot to a robot without mirrors, a wall-mounted mirror, and no device at all. With a larger participant pool, the results indicated that MirrorBot was the most effective at fostering interpersonal connection due to the eye contact it facilitated. The research suggests that while novel objects can spark conversation, the robot’s design directs attention to the other human rather than the object itself, promoting genuine social interaction.
