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MirrorBot

Eye contact, even momentarily between strangers, plays a pivotal role in fostering human connection, promoting happiness, and enhancing belonging. Yet, the physical rigidity of public spaces, such as airport terminals, often limits opportunities for meaningful interactions between strangers who often remain absorbed in their personal activities. This paper introduces Mirrorbot, a robotic mirror system that transforms static environments into dynamic, socio-spatial interfaces. Through autonomous navigation and adaptive mirror control, Mirrorbot facilitates serendipitous, non-verbal interactions by dynamically transitioning reflections from self-focused to mutual recognition, sparking eye contact, shared awareness, and playful engagement. By integrating mirrors—a familiar and accessible architectural element—Mirrorbot disrupts conventional isolation in public spaces, enabling embodied, accessible interactions that go beyond screen-based solutions. This work demonstrates the potential of interactive mirrors to enrich public spaces, fostering spontaneous connections in shared environments.

This work is in collaboration with:

Ideation and co-lead: Qi Yang

Mechanical engineering RA: Yunting Yan, Xiaoman Yang

Computer graphics RA: Alif Abdullah, Miriam Alex, Jay Zheng

User study and analysis RA: Jenny Yu, Wenqian Niu, Evanna (Yifei) Gao, Penny Ren

Faculty advisors: Keith Evan Green, Gilly Leshed, Guy Hoffman

Fig_Design Process.jpg

Design and prototyping process to explore how two mirrors facilitate different self-other perception:

(a) Two mirrors reflecting each other in space: Facilitates mutual eye contact for individuals sitting back-to-back.

(b) One large mirror with a smaller mirror embedded inside: Allows individuals to primarily see themselves, with parts of their face blending into the reflection of another person.

(c) Two mirrors opening like a "book": Creates an equal view for both individuals as the mirrors gradually open.

(d) Two mirror stripes intersecting: Blurs the images of self and other, blending their reflections together.

(e) Two mirrors appearing randomly in space: Facilitates unexpected and surprising encounters.

Diagram_SelfOther_3.jpg

The four key states of two mirrors: (a) Voids, (b) Dual Self, (c) Dual Other, and (d) Self + Other

Fig_storyboard.png

Dynamic Interactions Enabled by MirrorBot:

(a) Two strangers are absorbed in their phones in an airport terminal.
(b) MirrorBot detects the two strangers and moves toward them.

(c) MirrorBot uses "nodding" and "shaking" movements with its mirrors ("Voids" state) to attract the attention of the individuals.

(d) The individuals first notice their own reflections in the mirrors ("Dual Self"), followed by noticing the other’s reflections in the mirrors ("Dual Other").

(e) The strangers view themselves in one mirror and the other person in the adjacent mirror, fostering a moment of shared awareness ("Self + Other").
(f) MirrorBot leaves when two strangers start talking with each other face-to-face, or show no intention to interact with one another.

Fig_System diagram_ver2.jpg

System diagram of MirrorBot (left) and the actual MirrorBot prototype (right).

Publications (Ongoing):

Serena Ge Guo, Jenny Yu, Wenqian Niu, Yifei Gao, Guy Hoffman, Gilly Leshed, and Keith Evan Green. Robot-Mediated Mutual Gaze: How a Mobile Robot with Actuated Mirrors Facilitates Encounters Between Strangers.  In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, (HRI ’26)

🏆Best Design Paper (top 1% of submissions)

Serena Ge Guo, Qi Yang, Jenny Yu, Wenqian Niu, Yunting Yan, Gilly Leshed, Guy Hoffman, and Keith Evan Green. “When We're Looking at the Robot, We See Each Other”: A Comparison of Robotic, Mirror-Based, and Hybrid Interventions for Stranger Interaction. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '26)

Ge (Serena) Guo, Qi Yang, Yunting Yan, Xiaoman Yang, Guy Hoffman, Gilly Leshed, and Keith Evan Green. 2025. MirrorBot: Exploring Socio-Spatial Interactions that Foster Serendipitous Human Connections Through Robotic Mirrors. In Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’25 EA). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 8 pages.

Serena Ge Guo Design

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