TV-Watching Robot: Toward Enriching Media Experience and Activating Human Communication

Viewing television (TV) with family and friends makes the experience more enjoyable. Recently, as more people watch TV programs on their mobile devices via the internet, opportunities to watch TV in groups are decreasing. We propose a companion robot to enhance human communication during the TV-viewing experience. The robot extracts keywords from the video, audio, and subtitle data of the TV program being watched, generates utterances from the keywords, and asks people questions related to the TV program. Viewers can chat with the robot, triggered by its questions. To confirm the utility of the robot, we conducted an experiment in which users watched TV with the robot. Results indicate that over 70% of the participants responded that the robot “promoted active conversations among people” and “created a more relaxed atmosphere.” Thus, our study demonstrates that a TV-watching robot can create novel and rich media experiences and stimulate communication among people.