A Topic Recognition System for Real World Human-Robot Conversations

2013

One of the main features of social robots is the ability to communicate and interact with people as partners in a natural way. However, achieving a good verbal interaction is a hard task due to the errors on speech recognition systems, and due to the understanting the natural language itself. This paper tries to overcome such kind of problems by presenting a system that enables social robots to get involved in conversation by recognizing its topic. Through the use of classical text mining approach, the presented system allows social robots to understand topics of conversation between human partners, enabling the customization of behaviours in their accordance. The system has been evaluated …

An Architecture for Telenoid Robot as Empathic Conversational Android Companion for Elderly People

2015

In Human-Humanoid Interaction (HHI), empathy is the crucial key in order to overcome the current limitations of social robots. In facts, a principal defining characteristic of human social behaviour is empathy. The present paper presents a robotic architecture for an android robot as a basis for natural empathic human-android interaction. We start from the hypothesis that the robots, in order to become personal companions need to know how to empathic interact with human beings. To validate our research, we have used the proposed system with the minimalistic humanoid robot Telenoid. We have conducted human-robot interactions test with elderly people with no prior interaction experience with …

Perceptual Social Dimensions of Human - Humanoid Robot Interaction

2013

The present paper aims at a descriptive analysis of the main perceptual and social features of natural conditions of agent interaction, which can be specified by agent in human-humanoid robot interaction. A principled approach to human-robot interaction may be assumed to comply with the natural conditions of agents overt perceptual and social behaviour. To validate our research we used the minimalistic humanoid robot Telenoid. We have conducted human-robot interactions test with people with no prior interaction experience with robot. By administrating our questionnaire to subject after well defined experimental conditions, an analysis of significant variance correlation among dimensions in …

Social Acceptance of a Teleoperated Android: Field Study on Elderly’s Engagement with an Embodied Communication Medium in Denmark

2012

We explored the potential of teleoperated android robots, which are embodied telecommunication media with humanlike appearances, and how they affect people in the real world when they are employed to express a telepresence and a sense of 'being there'. In Denmark, our exploratory study focused on the social aspects of Telenoid, a teleoperated android, which might facilitate communication between senior citizens and Telenoid's operator. After applying it to the elderly in their homes, we found that the elderly assumed positive attitudes toward Telenoid, and their positivity and strong attachment to its huggable minimalistic human design were cross-culturally shared in Denmark and Japan. Cont…

Towards Partners Profiling in Human Robot Interaction Contexts

2012

Individuality is one of the most important qualities of humans. Social robots should be able to model the individuality of the human partners and to modify their behaviours accordingly.This paper proposes a profiling system for social robots to be able to learn the individuality of human partners in social contexts. Profiles are expressed in terms of of identities and preferences bound together. In particular, people’s identity is captured by the use of facial features, while preferences are extracted from the discussion between the partners. Both are bound using an Hebb network. Experiments show the feasibility and the performances of the approach presented.

40(th) EASD Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes : Munich, Germany, 5-9 September 2004

2004

A Multimodal People Recognition System for an Intelligent Environment

2011

In this paper, a multimodal system for recognizing people in intelligent environments is presented. Users are identified and tracked by detecting and recognizing voices and faces through cameras and microphones spread around the environment. This multimodal approach has been chosen to develop a flexible and cheap though reliable system, implemented through consumer electronics. Voice features are extracted through a short time spectrum analysis, while face features are extracted using the eigenfaces technique. The recognition task is achieved through the use of some Support Vector Machines, one per modality, that learn and classify the features of each person, while bindings between modalit…

Integrating Built-in Sensors of an Android with Sensors Embedded in the Environment for Studying a More Natural Human-Robot Interaction

2011

Several studies supported that there is a strict and complex relationship between outer appearance and the behavior showed by the robot and that a human-like appearance is not enough for give a positive impression. The robot should behave closely to humans, and should have a sense of perception that enables it to communicate with humans. Our past experience with the android “Geminoid HI-1” demonstrated that the sensors equipping the robot are not enough to perform a human-like communication, mainly because of a limited sensing range. To overcome this problem, we endowed the environment around the robot with perceptive capabilities by embedding sensors such as cameras into it. This paper rep…

Investigating Perceptual Features for a Natural Human - Humanoid Robot Interaction Inside a Spontaneous Setting

2013

The present paper aims to validate our research on human-humanoid interaction (HHI) using the minimalistic humanoid robot Telenoid. We have conducted human-robot interactions test with 100 young people with no prior interaction experience with this robot. The main goal is the analysis of the two social dimension (perception and believability) useful for increasing the natural behavior between users and Telenoid. We administrated our custom questionnaire to these subjects after a well defined experimental setting (ordinary and goal-guided task). After the analysis of the questionnaires, we obtained the proof that perceptual and believability conditions are necessary social dimensions for a s…

Audio-video people recognition system for an intelligent environment

2011

In this paper an audio-video system for intelligent environments with the capability to recognize people is presented. Users are tracked inside the environment and their positions and activities can be logged. Users identities are assessed through a multimodal approach by detecting and recognizing voices and faces through the different cameras and microphones installed in the environment. This approach has been chosen in order to create a flexible and cheap but reliable system, implemented using consumer electronics. Voice features are extracted by a short time cepstrum analysis, and face features are extracted using the eigenfaces technique. The recognition task is solved using the same Su…

A Cognitive Model of Trust for Biological and Artificial Humanoid Robots

2018

Abstract This paper presents a model of trust for biological and artificial humanoid robots and agents as antecedent condition of interaction. We discuss the cognitive engines of social perception that accounts for the units on which agents operate and the rules they follow when they bestow trust and assess trustworthiness. We propose that this structural information is the domain of the model. The model represents it in terms of modular cognitive structures connected by a parallel architecture. Finally we give a preliminary formalization of the model in the mathematical framework of the I/O automata for future computational and human-humanoid application.

Telenoid android robot as an embodied perceptual social regulation medium engaging natural human–humanoid interaction

2014

The present paper aims to validate our research on human-humanoid interaction (HHI) using the minimalist humanoid robot Telenoid. We conducted the human-robot interaction test with 142 young people who had no prior interaction experience with this robot. The main goal is the analysis of the two social dimensions (''Perception'' and ''Believability'') useful for increasing the natural behaviour between users and Telenoid. We administered our custom questionnaire to human subjects in association with a well defined experimental setting (''ordinary and goal-guided task''). A thorough analysis of the questionnaires has been carried out and reliability and internal consistency in correlation bet…

Embodied responses to musical experience detected by human bio-feedback brain features in a geminoid augmented architecture

2018

Abstract This paper presents the conceptual framework for a study of musical experience and the associated architecture centred on Human-Humanoid Interaction (HHI). On the grounds of the theoretical and experimental literature on the biological foundation of music, the grammar of music perception and the perception and feeling of emotions in music hearing, we argue that music cognition is specific and that it is realized by a cognitive capacity for music that consists of conceptual and affective constituents. We discuss the relationship between such constituents that enables understanding, that is extracting meaning from music at the different levels of the organization of sounds that are f…

An android architecture for bio-inspired honest signalling in Human-Humanoid Interaction

2017

Abstract This paper outlines an augmented robotic architecture to study the conditions of successful Human-Humanoid Interaction (HHI). The architecture is designed as a testable model generator for interaction centred on the ability to emit, display and detect honest signals. First we overview the biological theory in which the concept of honest signals has been put forward in order to assess its explanatory power. We reconstruct the application of the concept of honest signalling in accounting for interaction in strategic contexts and in laying bare the foundation for an automated social metrics. We describe the modules of the architecture, which is intended to implement the concept of hon…

A Cognitive Model of Trust for Biological and Artificial Humanoid Robots

2018

This paper presents a model of trust for biological and artificial humanoid robots and agents as antecedent condition of interaction. We discuss the cognitive engines of social perception that accounts for the units on which agents operate and the rules they follow when they bestow trust and assess trustworthiness. We propose that this structural information is the domain of the model. The model represents it in terms of modular cognitive structures connected by a parallel architecture. Finally we give a preliminary formalization of the model in the mathematical framework of the I/O automata for future computational and human-humanoid application.