Enhancing User Experience in Robotic Massage Therapy through Mixed Reality and Conversational Virtual Digital Humans

This poster investigates the role of mixed reality in enhancing user experience in robotic massage therapy, particularly through the integration of conversational virtual digital humans. A high-fidelity digital human system was developed and synchronized with the robotic massage system to achieve realistic 3D virtual-real alignment. The system employs a large model-based dialogue system for natural user interactions. In a Latin square design experiment with 13 participants, three environments were tested: a virtual robotic arm, a non-interactive virtual human, and an interactive virtual human. Results indicate that the interactive virtual human, when integrated with mixed reality, significantly improves user experience, enhancing system humanization and affinity. This study underscores the potential of mixed reality in advancing robotic massage therapy and provides insights for designing more human-centered robotic systems.