@inproceedings{10.1145/3800645.3813101,
author = {Song, Junrong and Wan, Huanyi and Han, Lei and Gao, Yinghao and Yip, David and Tong, Xin},
title = {CoStage: An Embodied AI Co-Creation System for Children’s Performative Storytelling with Robots},
year = {2026},
isbn = {9798400725630},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3800645.3813101},
doi = {10.1145/3800645.3813101},
abstract = {We present CoStage, an AI-supported embodied co-creation platform that combines LLM-based story generation with multi-robot stage performance to support children’s narrative construction and spatial imagination. Unlike prior AI storytelling tools that are largely screen-based, CoStage allows children to direct robot actors on a 360° tangible stage, transforming written stories into spatially enacted performances. Informed by formative work with domain experts, we evaluated CoStage in a within-subjects study (N = 24) comparing a robot enactment condition with a screen-based animation condition. Our findings indicate that robot-stage performance can heighten immersion, strengthen children’s sense of directorial agency, support spatial sensemaking, and foster a planning–enactment coordination loop during storytelling. This work advances child–computer interaction by offering design implications and demonstrating how embodied AI co-creation can support children’s spatial cognition and narrative engagement.},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 Designing Interactive Systems Conference},
pages = {3780–3803},
numpages = {24},
keywords = {Child–Computer Interaction; Embodied; AI Co-Creation; Performative Storytelling; Spatial Sensemaking; Tangible Interaction; Robotics},
location = {
},
series = {DIS '26}
}