An experimental eye-tracking study for the design of a context-dependent social robot blinking model

Abolfazl Zaraki, Maryam Banitalebi Dehkordi, Daniele Mazzei, Danilo De Rossi

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Human gaze and blinking behaviours have been recently considered, to empower humanlike robots to convey a realistic behaviour in a social human-robot interaction. This paper reports the findings of our investigation on human eye-blinking behaviour in relation to human gaze behaviour, in a human-human interaction. These findings then can be used to design a humanlike eye-blinking model for a social humanlike robot. In an experimental eye-tracking study, we showed to 11 participants, a 7-minute video of social interactions of two people, and collected their eye-blinking and gaze behaviours with an eye-tracker. Analysing the collected data, we measured information such as participants' blinking rate, maximum and minimum blinking duration, number of frequent (multiple) blinking, as well as the participants' gaze directions on environment. The results revealed that participants' blinking rate in a social interaction are qualitatively correlated to the gaze behaviour, as higher number of gaze shift increased the blinking rate. Based on the findings of this study, we can propose a context-dependent blinking model as an important component of the robot's gaze control system that can empower our robot to mimic human blinking behaviour in a multiparty social interaction.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationBiomimetic and Biohybrid Systems - Third International Conference, Living Machines 2014, Proceedings
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages356-366
Number of pages11
ISBN (Print)9783319094342
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Event3rd International Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems, Living Machines 2014 - Milan, Italy
Duration: 30 Jul 20141 Aug 2014

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume8608 LNAI
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference3rd International Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems, Living Machines 2014
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityMilan
Period30/07/141/08/14

Keywords

  • blinking model
  • eye-tracking study
  • gaze behaviour
  • humanlike robot
  • social human-robot interaction

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