Multi-Platform Intelligent System for Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction

We present a flexible human--robot interaction architecture that incorporates emotions and moods to provide a natural experience for humans. To determine the emotional state of the user, information representing eye gaze and facial expression is combined with other contextual information such as whether the user is asking questions or has been quiet for some time. Subsequently, an appropriate robot behaviour is selected from a multi-path scenario. This architecture can be easily adapted to interactions with non-embodied robots such as avatars on a mobile device or a PC. We present the outcome of evaluating an implementation of our proposed architecture as a whole, and also of its modules for detecting emotions and questions. Results are promising and provide a basis for further development

Facial Emotion Expressions in Human-Robot Interaction: A Survey

Facial expressions are an ideal means of communicating one's emotions or intentions to others. This overview will focus on human facial expression recognition as well as robotic facial expression generation. In the case of human facial expression recognition, both facial expression recognition on predefined datasets as well as in real-time will be covered. For robotic facial expression generation, hand-coded and automated methods i.e., facial expressions of a robot are generated by moving the features (eyes, mouth) of the robot by hand-coding or automatically using machine learning techniques, will also be covered. There are already plenty of studies that achieve high accuracy for emotion expression recognition on predefined datasets, but the accuracy for facial expression recognition in real-time is comparatively lower. In the case of expression generation in robots, while most of the robots are capable of making basic facial expressions, there are not many studies that enable robots to do so automatically. In this overview, state-of-the-art research in facial emotion expressions during human-robot interaction has been discussed leading to several possible directions for future research

A Web-based Mixed Reality Interface Facilitating Explicit Agent-oriented Interactions for Human-Robot Collaboration

Communicating and recognizing intent is a crucial part of human-robot collaboration (HRC). It prevents competing and turn-taking behaviour that would otherwise lead to inefficient and unsafe collaborative activities. This study presents a novel approach towards enabling standards-based explicit bidirectional intent communication. The approach entails projecting a tailored web-based user interface upon the worktable shared between a human and robot agent. The interface has a close integration with an agent framework (JADE) that allows intent communication via mechanisms standardized by the IEEE Computer Society. The interaction model is discussed for its rationale and the possibilities it exposes as future work.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Issues in the Development of Conversation Dialog for Humanoid Nursing Partner Robots in Long-Term Care

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the issues of development of conversational dialog of robots for nursing, especially for long-term care, and to forecast humanoid nursing partner robots (HNRs) introduced into clinical practice. In order to satisfy the required performance of HNRs, it is important that anthropomorphic robots act with high-quality conversational dialogic functions. As for its hardware, by allowing independent range of action and degree of freedom, the burden of quality exerted in human-robot communication is reduced, thereby unburdening nurses and professional caregivers. Furthermore, it is critical to develop a friendlier type of robot by equipping it with non-verbal emotive expressions that older people can perceive. If these functions are conjoined, anthropomorphic intelligent robots will serve as possible instructors, particularly for rehabilitation and recreation activities of older people. In this way, more than ever before, the HNRs will play an active role in healthcare and in the welfare fields