Natural Interaction in Asymmetric Teleconference using Stuffed-toy Avatar Robot

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an asymmetric teleconference system using stuffed-toy robot as the representative of the remote user. Our main goal is to realize the system that can provide natural conversation both on the remote and the local side without immersing the user into a virtual environment. We consider envelope feedback gesture as the significant part to realize natural interaction, specifically turn-taking, eye gazing and beat gesture. We use stuffed-toy robot as the avatar robot because it can move very fast as well as increase familiarity and improve the interaction due to its softness structure. Furthermore, softness structure also brings safety and robustness because it will not be easily broken. In the remote side, we use wearable sensor and eye-tracking sensor to capture remote user’s movement, thus enabling him/her to move and interact naturally as well. We conducted the teleconference experiment to evaluate our system. The result suggested that our system can improve the experience of the teleconference, especially in turn-taking aspect and transferring the beat gesture.