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How Quickly Should a Communication Robot Respond? Delaying Strategies and Habituation Effects

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Abstract

This paper reports a study about system response time (SRT) in communication robots that utilize human-like social features, such as anthropomorphic appearance and conversation in natural language. Our research purpose is to establish SRT design guidelines in communication robots. The first experiment observed user preferences toward different SRTs in interactions with a robot which indicated that user SRT preferences in a communication robot are peak at one-second SRT.

Based on the results of the first experiment, we conducted two further SRT investigations. One is for delaying strategy and we propose conversational filler which is a behavior that notifies listeners that the robot intends to respond. The other is for habituation effect to see the trend of the first experiment’s result will remain or not when using robots in daily life. In both investigations, we addressed how the delaying strategy and the habituation effect affect on SRT preferences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratory, 2-2-2 Hikaridai, Keihanna Science City, Kyoto, Japan

    Toshiyuki Shiwa, Takayuki Kanda, Michita Imai, Hiroshi Ishiguro & Norihiro Hagita

  2. Department of Information and Computer Science, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kouhoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan

    Toshiyuki Shiwa & Michita Imai

  3. Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita City, Osaka, Japan

    Hiroshi Ishiguro

Authors
  1. Toshiyuki Shiwa
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  2. Takayuki Kanda
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  3. Michita Imai
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  4. Hiroshi Ishiguro
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  5. Norihiro Hagita
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Correspondence to Toshiyuki Shiwa.

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Shiwa, T., Kanda, T., Imai, M. et al. How Quickly Should a Communication Robot Respond? Delaying Strategies and Habituation Effects. Int J of Soc Robotics 1, 141–155 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-009-0012-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-009-0012-8

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