The art of designing robot faces: dimensions for human-robot interaction

As robots enter everyday life and start to interact with ordinary people the question of their appearance becomes increasingly important. A user’s perception of a robot can be strongly influenced by its facial appearance. Synthesizing relevant ideas from narrative art design, the psychology of face recognition, and recent HRI studies into robot faces, we discuss effects of the uncanny valley and the use of iconicity and its effect on the self/other perceptive divide, as well as ness and realism, classifying existing designs along these dimensions. The dimensions and issues of face design are illustrated in the design rationale, details of construction and intended uses of a new minimal expressive robot called KASPAR.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: HRI
• Authors: Mike Blow, Kerstin Dautenhahn, Andrew Appleby, Chrystopher L. Nehaniv, David Lee
• Keywords: HRI 2006, Human Robot Interaction, Robot, Robot Called Kaspar, Self/other Perceptive Divide