Exploring the utility of giving robots auditory perspective-taking abilities

Presented at the 12th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), London, UK, June 20-23, 2006.This paper reports on work in progress to develop a computational auditory perspective taking system for a robot. Auditory perspective taking is construed as the ability to reason about inferred or posited factors that affect an addressee's perspective as a listener for the purpose of presenting auditory information in an appropriate and effective manner. High-level aspects of this aural interaction skill are discussed, and a prototype adaptive auditory display, implemented in the context of a robotic information kiosk, is described and critiqued. Additionally, a sketch of the design and goals of a user study planned for later this year is given. A demonstration of the prototype system will accompany the presentation of this research in the poster session