@inproceedings{Gui2026,

title = {Peeking Ahead of the Field Study: Exploring VLM Personas as Support Tools for Embodied Studies in HCI},

author = {Xinyue Gui and Ding Xia and Mark Colley and Yuan Li and Vishal Chauhan and Anubhav Anubhav and Zhongyi Zhou and Ehsan Javanmardi and Stela Hanbyeol Seo Social and Chia-Ming Chang and Manabu Tsukada and Takeo Igarashi},

url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16157},

doi = {10.1145/3772318.3790537},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-04-13},

urldate = {2026-04-13},

booktitle = {ACM CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2026},

address = {Barcelona, Spain},

abstract = {Field studies are irreplaceable but costly, time-consuming, and error-prone, which need careful preparation. Inspired by rapid-prototyping in manufacturing, we propose a fast, low-cost evaluation method using Vision-Language Model (VLM) personas to simulate outcomes comparable to field results. While LLMs show human-like reasoning and language capabilities, autonomous vehicle (AV)-pedestrian interaction requires spatial awareness, emotional empathy, and behavioral generation. This raises our research question: To what extent can VLM personas mimic human responses in field studies? We conducted parallel studies: 1) one real-world study with 20 participants, and 2) one video-study using 20 VLM personas, both on a street-crossing task. We compared their responses and interviewed five HCI researchers on potential applications. Results show that VLM personas mimic human response patterns (e.g., average crossing times of 5.25 s vs. 5.07 s) lack the behavioral variability and depth. They show promise for formative studies, field study preparation, and human data augmentation.},

note = {Honourable Mention Award},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Chauhan2026b,

title = {Don't Worry, Just Follow Me: Prototyping and In-the-Wild Evaluation of Smart Pole Interaction Unit with Mobility},

author = {Vishal Chauhan and Anubhav Anubhav and Mark Colley and Chia-Ming Chang and Xinyue Gui and Ding Xia and Ehsan Javanmardi and Takeo Igarashi and Kantaro Fujiwara and Manabu Tsukada},

url = {https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vishal-Chauhan-17/publication/401082338_Don\\\\\\\'t_Worry_Just_Follow_Me_Prototyping_and_In-the-Wild_Evaluation_of_Smart_Pole_Interaction_Unit_with_Mobility/links/699c56575d60ab483570b3d5/Dont-Worry-Just-Follow-Me-Prototyping-and-In-the-Wild-Evaluation-of-Smart-Pole-Interaction-Unit-with-Mobility.pdf},

doi = {10.1145/3772318.3790882},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-04-13},

urldate = {2026-04-13},

booktitle = {ACM CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2026},

address = {Barcelona, Spain},

abstract = {Pedestrian–automated vehicle(AV) encounters in shared spaces often involve hesitation and ambiguity. Vehicle-mounted external human–machine interfaces(eHMIs) can help, but obscured or poorly timed communications create significant challenges. To address this, we present a mobile smart pole interaction unit(SPIU) with integrated cameras and LED displays, designed as a pedestrian-side system to deliver explicit cues(``WALK,'' ``STOP''). An in-the-wild evaluation of the SPIU(N=21) using a four-factor analysis (CarBehavior, Mobility, eHMI, SPIU) showed that the SPIU improved understandability, trust, and perceived safety, and reduced workload compared with the baseline, with a combination(eHMI+SPIU) yielding the strongest results. Beyond these quantitative benefits, participants appreciated the mobility of the SPIU for its ``clear'' and ``easy to decide'' mediation. This work contributes to(1) a design and deployment framework for a mobile SPIU and(2) an in-the-wild evaluation protocol for pedestrian–AV interactions in nonsignalized spaces. Our work sparks discussions on real world evaluations involving detailed vehicle kinematics and accessible multimodality(e.g., audio), focusing on the role of personal robots as user-side eHMIs.},

note = {Honourable Mention Award},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}