Previous research shows that eating together (i.e., commensality) impacts food choice, time spent eating, and enjoyment. Conversely, eating alone is considered a possible cause of unhappiness. In this paper, we conceptually explore how interactive technology might allow for the creation of artificial commensal companions: embodied agents providing company to humans during meals (e.g., a person living in isolation due to health reasons). We operationalize this with the design of our commensal companion: a system based on the MyKeepon robot, paired with a Kinect sensor, able to track the human commensal's activity (i.e., food picking and intake) and able to perform predefined nonverbal behavior in response. In this preliminary study with 10 participants, we investigate whether this autonomous social robot-based system can positively establish an interaction that humans perceive and whether it can influence their food choices. In this study, the participants are asked to taste some chocolates with and without the presence of an artificial commensal companion. The participants are made to believe that the study targets the food experience, whilst the presence of a robot is accidental. Next, we analyze their food choices and feedback regarding the role and social presence of the artificial commensal during the task performance. We conclude the paper by discussing the lessons we learned about the first interactions we observed between a human and a social robot in a commensality setting and by proposing future steps and more complex applications for this novel kind of technology.

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With one-person households being increasingly common and Covid-19 lockdown policies forcing people to stay home, remote dining has become common practice for many, who take it as an opportunity to connect with others in times of loneliness. Sharing meals online, also known as digital commensality, is a rich form of interaction, where people leverage technology to achieve a sense of connectedness and belonging while eating. In this paper, we look at digital commensality and we explore its inherent playful potential with the aim to inspire the design of engaging technologies that can support, enhance and augment this form of interaction. For this, we used a situated play design approach to document and analyze the behavior of 36 people (including pairs of friends and strangers) sharing meals online. Our analysis surfaced a set of play potentials of remote dining - i.e., playful things people already do and enjoy spontaneously while sharing meals online. We present those play potentials as inspirational material: they can motivate and enrich the design of future digital commensality technologies by responding to people's desire for playful and social interaction with, through, and around food.@en

Commensality is defined as "a social group that eats together" and eating in a commensality setting has a number of positive effects on humans. In this paper, we discuss how HCI and technology in general can be exploited to replicate the benefits of commensality for people who choose or are forced to eat alone. We discuss research into and the design of Artificial Commensal Companions that can provide social interactions during food consumption. We present the design of a system, consisting of a toy robot, computer vision tracking, and a simple interaction model, that can show non-verbal social behaviors to influence a user's food choice. Finally, we discuss future studies and applications of this system, and provide suggestions for future research into Artificial Commensal Companions.@en

Commensality is defined as "a social group that eats together", and eating in a commensality setting has a number of positive effects on humans. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of technology on commensality by presenting an experiment in which a toy robot showing non-verbal social behaviours tries to influence a participants' food choice and food taste perception. We managed to conduct both a qualitative and quantitative study with 10 participants. Results show the favourable impression of the robot on participants. It also emerged that the robot may be able to influence the food choices using its non-verbal behaviors only. However, these results are not statistically significant, perhaps due to the small sample size. In the future, we plan to collect more data using the same experimental protocol, and to verify these preliminary results.

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