Head Pose Behavior in the Human-Robot Interaction Space

Visual Focus of Attention is an important mechanism to support successful interactions. In order to communicate effectively and intentionally (issuing cues when a person is paying attention, for example), a robot must have an understanding of this Visual Focus of Attention behavior in the Human-Robot Interaction space. A real-world interaction study was conducted with 24 unsolicited participants to explore attention behavior towards robots in this space. The results suggest there is no generalizable attention pattern between people, and thus that online, in situ Visual Focus of Attention estimation would be advantageous to Human-Robot Interaction.