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An Examination of Gaze During Conversation for Designing Culture-Based Robot Behavior

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Social Computing and Social Media. Design, Ethics, User Behavior, and Social Network Analysis (HCII 2020)

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Abstract

Gaze behavior, including eye contact and gaze direction, is an essential component of non-verbal communication, helping to facilitate human-to-human conversation in ways that have often been thought of as universal and innate. However, these have been shown to be influenced partially by cultural norms and background, and despite this, the majority of social robots do not have any cultural-based non-verbal behaviors and several lack any directional gaze capabilities at all. This study aims to observe how different gaze behaviors manifest during conversation as a function of culture as well as exposure to other cultures, by examining differences in behaviors such as duration of direct gaze, duration and direction of averted gaze, and average number of shifts in gaze, with the objective of establishing a baseline of Japanese gaze behavior to be implemented into a social robot. Japanese subjects were found to have much more averted gaze during a task that involves thinking as opposed to a task focused on communication. Subjects with significant experience living overseas were found to have different directional gaze patterns from subjects with little to no overseas experience, implying that non-verbal behavior patterns can change with exposure to other cultures.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Anjanie McCarthy for providing the original collection of questions used in previous culture and gaze studies. And a special acknowledgment and thank you to Miyuki Iwamoto for her help in running experiments and providing valuable guidance and advice on equipment. This work was supported by RIKEN-AIP, JST CREST Grant Number JPMJCR17A5 and JSPS KAKENHI 17H01779, Japan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intelligence Science and Technology, Kyoto University, Yoshida Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Louisa Hardjasa & Atsushi Nakazawa

Authors
  1. Louisa Hardjasa
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  2. Atsushi Nakazawa
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Louisa Hardjasa or Atsushi Nakazawa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Towson University, Towson, MD, USA

    Gabriele Meiselwitz

Appendix

Appendix

Talking topics

 

Question

Temporal orientation

How you spent your summer vacation

Past

Your favourite holiday of the year

Neutral/Present

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Past

Your favourite type of cuisine/food 

Neutral/Present

The next place you would most like to travel to

Future

Thinking Questions.

  1. 1.

    What is the name of a flower that is also a female name?

  2. 2.

    If your mother’s brother has a child what is your relationship to that child?

  3. 3.

    What is the name of a fruit with red flesh?

  4. 4.

    If the current day is Thursday, what day will it be after 16 days?

  5. 5.

    What is 9 × 4 / 2 + 7?

  6. 6.

    What is the 14th letter of the alphabet?

  7. 7.

    It took A 12 h to run to B’s house at 8 km per hour. How far is it between A’s house and B’s house?

  8. 8.

    What is the name of a month that has only 30 days?

  9. 9.

    What is a color that is NOT found in a rainbow?

  10. 10.

    How many words can a person with a typing speed of 65 wpm, type in 8 min?

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Hardjasa, L., Nakazawa, A. (2020). An Examination of Gaze During Conversation for Designing Culture-Based Robot Behavior. In: Meiselwitz, G. (eds) Social Computing and Social Media. Design, Ethics, User Behavior, and Social Network Analysis. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12194. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49570-1_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49570-1_33

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-49569-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-49570-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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