Making eye contact with a robot: Psychophysiological responses to eye contact with a human and with a humanoid robot

Yokotani

et al. 2021

IJERPH

Although progress is being made in affective computing, issues remain in enabling the effective expression of compassionate communication by healthcare robots. Identifying, describing and reconciling these concerns are important in order to provide quality contemporary healthcare for older adults with dementia. The purpose of this case study was to explore the development issues of healthcare robots in expressing compassionate communication for older adults with dementia. An exploratory descriptive case study was conducted with the Pepper robot and older adults with dementia using high-tech digital cameras to document significant communication proceedings that occurred during the activities. Data were collected in December 2020. The application program for an intentional conversation using Pepper was jointly developed by Tanioka’s team and the Xing Company, allowing Pepper’s words and head movements to be remotely controlled. The analysis of the results revealed four development issues, namely, (1) accurate sensing behavior for “listening” to voices appropriately and accurately interacting with subjects; (2) inefficiency in “listening” and “gaze” activities; (3) fidelity of behavioral responses; and (4) deficiency in natural language processing AI development, i.e., the ability to respond actively to situations that were not pre-programmed by the developer. Conversational engagements between the Pepper robot and patients with dementia illustrated a practical usage of technologies with artificial intelligence and natural language processing. The development issues found in this study require reconciliation in order to enhance the potential for healthcare robot engagement in compassionate communication in the care of older adults with dementia.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development Issues of Healthcare Robots: Compassionate Communication for Older Adults with Dementia

Yokotani

et al. 2021

IJERPH

“…Knowledge concerning physiological responses to eye contact in robots is still sparse, though recent research has shown that direct eye contact with a robot has similar physiological influences as that of eye contact with another human, though to a lesser extent (Kiilavuori et al, 2021). Since eye contact over a live video can also induce physiological effects, it is plausible to find this in the current experiment, which makes use of a mock live video connection (Hietanen et al, 2020).…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 96%

Robot Gaze Behavior Affects Honesty in Human-Robot Interaction

Schellen¹,

Bossi²,

Wykowska³

2021

Preprint

As the use of humanoid robots proliferates, an increasing amount of people may find themselves face-to-“face” with a robot in everyday life. Although there is a plethora of information available on facial social cues and how we interpret them in the field of human-human social interaction, we cannot assume that these findings flawlessly transfer to human-robot interaction. Therefore, more research on facial cues in human-robot interaction is required. This study investigated deception in human-robot interaction context, focusing on the effect that eye contact with a robot has on honesty towards this robot. In an iterative task, participants could assist a humanoid robot by providing it with correct information, or potentially secure a reward for themselves by providing it with incorrect information. Results show that participants are increasingly honest after the robot establishes eye contact with them, but only if this is in response to deceptive behavior. Behavior is not influenced by the establishment of eye contact if the participant is actively engaging in honest behavior. These findings support the notion that humanoid robots can be perceived as, and treated like, social agents, since the herein described effect mirrors one present in human-human social interaction.

“…Gaze behavior from a robot is highly studied in HRI. It has been shown that making eye contact with a robot evokes similar physiological responses as if with a human [13]. Appropriate gaze from a speaking robot towards a human can positively affect the recall of what has been said [16] and can regulate the role of the participants in conversations [17].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-Related Differences in the Perception of Eye-Gaze from a Social Robot

Morillo-Mendez¹,

Schrooten²,

Loutfi³

et al. 2021

Preprint

The sensibility to deictic gaze declines naturally with age and often results in reduced social perception. Thus, the increasing efforts in developing social robots that assist older adults during daily life tasks need to consider the effects of aging. In this context, as non-verbal cues such as deictic gaze are important in natural communication in human-robot interaction, this paper investigates the performance of older adults, as compared to younger adults, during a controlled, online (visual search) task inspired by daily life activities, while assisted by a social robot.This paper also examines age-related differences in social perception. Our results showed a significant facilitation effect of head movement representing deictic gaze from a Pepper robot on task performance. This facilitation effect was not significantly different between the age groups. However, social perception of the robot was less influenced by its deictic gaze behavior in older adults, as compared to younger adults. This line of research may ultimately help informing the design of adaptive non-verbal cues from social robots for a wide range of end users.