A Bayesian hierarchy for robust gaze estimation in human–robot interaction

In this text, we present a probabilistic solution for robust gaze estimation in the context of human–robot interaction. Gaze estimation, in the sense of continuously assessing gaze direction of an interlocutor so as to determine his/her focus of visual attention, is important in several important computer vision applications, such as the development of non-intrusive gaze-tracking equipment for psychophysical experiments in neuroscience, specialised telecommunication devices, video surveillance, human–computer interfaces (HCI) and artificial cognitive systems for human–robot interaction (HRI), our application of interest. We have developed a robust solution based on a probabilistic approach that inherently deals with the uncertainty of sensor models, but also and in particular with uncertainty arising from distance, incomplete data and scene dynamics. This solution comprises a hierarchical formulation in the form of a mixture model that loosely follows how geometrical cues provided by facial features are believed to be used by the human perceptual system for gaze estimation. A quantitative analysis of the proposed framework's performance was undertaken through a thorough set of experimental sessions. Results show that the framework performs according to the difficult requirements of HRI applications, namely by exhibiting correctness, robustness and adaptiveness

Averting Robot Eyes

Home robots will cause privacy harms. At the same time, they can provide beneficial services—as long as consumers trust them. This Essay evaluates potential technological solutions that could help home robots keep their promises, avert their eyes, and otherwise mitigate privacy harms. Our goals are to inform regulators of robot-related privacy harms and the available technological tools for mitigating them, and to spur technologists to employ existing tools and develop new ones by articulating principles for avoiding privacy harms. We posit that home robots will raise privacy problems of three basic types: (1) data privacy problems; (2) boundary management problems; and (3) social/relational problems. Technological design can ward off, if not fully prevent, a number of these harms. We propose five principles for home robots and privacy design: data minimization, purpose specifications, use limitations, honest anthropomorphism, and dynamic feedback and participation. We review current research into privacy-sensitive robotics, evaluating what technological solutions are feasible and where the harder problems lie. We close by contemplating legal frameworks that might encourage the implementation of such design, while also recognizing the potential costs of regulation at these early stages of the technology

Human Motion Trajectory Prediction: A Survey

With growing numbers of intelligent autonomous systems in human environments, the ability of such systems to perceive, understand and anticipate human behavior becomes increasingly important. Specifically, predicting future positions of dynamic agents and planning considering such predictions are key tasks for self-driving vehicles, service robots and advanced surveillance systems. This paper provides a survey of human motion trajectory prediction. We review, analyze and structure a large selection of work from different communities and propose a taxonomy that categorizes existing methods based on the motion modeling approach and level of contextual information used. We provide an overview of the existing datasets and performance metrics. We discuss limitations of the state of the art and outline directions for further research.Comment: Submitted to the International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), 37 page

Towards robots reasoning about group behavior of museum visitors: leader detection and group tracking

The final publication is available at IOS Press through http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/AIS-170467Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Visual Perception for a Partner Robot Based on Computational Intelligent

We propose computational intelligence for partner robot perception in which the robot requires the capability of visual perception to interact with human beings. Basically, robots should conduct moving object extraction, clustering, and classification for visual perception used in interactions with human beings. We propose total human visual tracking by long-term memory, k-means, self-organizing map, and a fuzzy controller is used for movement output. Experimental results show that the partner robot can conduct the human visual tracking

Real-time computation of distance to dynamic obstacles with multiple depth sensors

We present an efficient method to evaluate distances between dynamic obstacles and a number of points of interests (e.g., placed on the links of a robot) when using multiple depth cameras. A depth-space oriented discretization of the Cartesian space is introduced that represents at best the workspace monitored by a depth camera, including occluded points. A depth grid map can be initialized off line from the arrangement of the multiple depth cameras, and its peculiar search characteristics allows fusing on line the information given by the multiple sensors in a very simple and fast way. The real-time performance of the proposed approach is shown by means of collision avoidance experiments where two Kinect sensors monitor a human-robot coexistence task