296
Biologically Inspired Robotics
Abstract
A novel paradigm for the evaluation of human–robot interaction is proposed, with special focus on the importance of natural eye and head
movements in nonverbal human–machine communication scenarios. We
present an experimental platform that will enable Wizard-of-Oz experiments in which a human experimenter (wizard) teleoperates a robotic
head and eyes with his own head and eyes. Because the robot is animated based on the nonverbal behaviors of the human experimenter, the
whole range of human eye movements can be presented without having
to implement a complete gaze behavior model first. The experimenter
watches and reacts to the video stream of the participant, who directly
interacts with the robot. Results are presented that focus on those technical aspects of the experimental platform that enable real-time and
human-like interaction capabilities. In particular, the tracking of ocular
motor dynamics, its replication in a robotic active vision system, and
the involved teleoperation delays are evaluated. This setup will help to
answer the question of which aspects of human gaze and head movement behavior have to be implemented to achieve humanness in active
vision systems of robots.
16.1 Introduction
How important is it to resemble human performance in artificial eyes and
which aspects of ocular and neck motor functionality are key to people’s
attribution of humanness to robot heads? In a first step toward answering
this question, we have implemented an experimental platform that facilitates evaluations of human-like robotic eye and head movements in human–
machine interactions. It is centered around a pair of artificial eyes exceeding
human performance in terms of acceleration and angular velocity. Due to
their modular nature and small form factor, they were already integrated
into two different robots.
We also provide two distinct ways to control the robotic eye and head
movements. There is a simple MATLAB (The MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA)
interface that allows easy implementation of experiments in controlled environments. But we also wanted to be able to examine eye and head movements
in the context of natural conversation scenarios. Facing the challenging task
of implementing a complicated conversation flow model that involves speech
recognition, synthesis, and semantic processing, we decided to take a shortcut and put a real human “inside” the robot who would not only speak and
listen through the robot but also be able to naturally control the robot’s eyes
and head with his own eyes and head.
This novel Wizard-of-Oz scenario, in which the experimenter (wizard)
teleoperates the head and eye movements of a robot (see Figure 16.1), ensures
Biologically Inspired Robotics
Abstract
A novel paradigm for the evaluation of human–robot interaction is proposed, with special focus on the importance of natural eye and head
movements in nonverbal human–machine communication scenarios. We
present an experimental platform that will enable Wizard-of-Oz experiments in which a human experimenter (wizard) teleoperates a robotic
head and eyes with his own head and eyes. Because the robot is animated based on the nonverbal behaviors of the human experimenter, the
whole range of human eye movements can be presented without having
to implement a complete gaze behavior model first. The experimenter
watches and reacts to the video stream of the participant, who directly
interacts with the robot. Results are presented that focus on those technical aspects of the experimental platform that enable real-time and
human-like interaction capabilities. In particular, the tracking of ocular
motor dynamics, its replication in a robotic active vision system, and
the involved teleoperation delays are evaluated. This setup will help to
answer the question of which aspects of human gaze and head movement behavior have to be implemented to achieve humanness in active
vision systems of robots.
16.1 Introduction
How important is it to resemble human performance in artificial eyes and
which aspects of ocular and neck motor functionality are key to people’s
attribution of humanness to robot heads? In a first step toward answering
this question, we have implemented an experimental platform that facilitates evaluations of human-like robotic eye and head movements in human–
machine interactions. It is centered around a pair of artificial eyes exceeding
human performance in terms of acceleration and angular velocity. Due to
their modular nature and small form factor, they were already integrated
into two different robots.
We also provide two distinct ways to control the robotic eye and head
movements. There is a simple MATLAB (The MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA)
interface that allows easy implementation of experiments in controlled environments. But we also wanted to be able to examine eye and head movements
in the context of natural conversation scenarios. Facing the challenging task
of implementing a complicated conversation flow model that involves speech
recognition, synthesis, and semantic processing, we decided to take a shortcut and put a real human “inside” the robot who would not only speak and
listen through the robot but also be able to naturally control the robot’s eyes
and head with his own eyes and head.
This novel Wizard-of-Oz scenario, in which the experimenter (wizard)
teleoperates the head and eye movements of a robot (see Figure 16.1), ensures