A large percentage of people with autism or developmental disorders, which are mental disabilities, have sensory hypersensitivity. Therefore, the spread of “quiet rooms” in which they can feel at ease in social life is a necessary element in realizing a symbiotic society. However, the high cost of installing quiet rooms, which require highly soundproof rooms isolated from the outside, is an obstacle to their widespread use. The Inclusive Quiet Room is a new concept of portable quiet rooms that combines an easy-to-construct instant house, immersive videos, and relaxing sounds. In addition to enabling many people to experience the benefits of the room, the work proposes an image of the future quiet rooms that can be easily constructed anywhere. In this paper, we analyze the effectiveness of the Inclusive Quiet Room, exhibited in France, based on survey data from 372 respondents. Through the analysis, the relaxation effects and the demands for quiet rooms are substantiated. The room gives the feeling of being warmly embraced and secured. If all people including those without mental disorders could experience this embraced feeling, they would understand the need and benefits of relaxing environments for the people with sensory hypersensitivities.

Robots that interact with humans are required to express emotions in ways that are appropriate to the context. While most prior research has focused primarily on basic emotions, real-life interactions demand more nuanced expressions. In this study, we extended the expressive capabilities of the android robot Nikola by implementing 63 facial expressions, covering not only complex emotions and physical conditions, but also differences in intensity. At Expo 2025 in Japan, more than 600 participants interacted with Nikola by describing situations in which they wanted the robot to perform facial expressions. The robot inferred emotions using a large language model and performed corresponding facial expressions. Questionnaire responses revealed that participants rated the robot’s behavior as more appropriate and emotionally expressive when their instructions were abstract, compared to when they explicitly included emotions or physical states. This suggests that abstract instructions enhance perceived agency in the robot. We also investigated and discussed how impressions towards the robot varied depending on the expressions it performed and the personality traits of participants. This study contributes to the research field of human–robot interaction by demonstrating how adaptive facial expressions, in association with instruction styles, are linked to shaping human perceptions of social robots.

In recent years, robots have started to play an active role in various places in society. The ability of robots not only to convey information but also to interact emotionally, is necessary to realize a human-robot symbiotic society. Many studies have been conducted on the emotional expression of robots. However, as robots come in a wide variety of designs, it is difficult to construct a generic expression method, and some robots are not equipped with expression devices such as faces or displays. To address these problems, this research aims to develop technology that enables robots to express emotions, using Manpu (a symbolic method used in comic books, expressing not only the emotions of humans and animals but also the states of objects) and mixed reality technology. As the first step of the research, we categorize manpu and use large language models to generate manpu expressions according to the dialogue information.