Study for the role of ambiguous emotional expression in communication with a robot

交往是人类社会能力的基础。它是多个实体之间的信息交换，在这种情况下，人们认为沟通不需要模棱两可。这项研究提出了一个假设，即歧义包含在人际交流中，它不仅在一对一的关系中起着至关重要的作用，而且在一个大规模的社会群体中也是如此。为了验证这一假设，我们用机器人进行了模拟研究和行为实验。为了实现这一研究成果，我们开发了一个带有通信机器人的行为实验系统。通过这个实验系统，我们可以展示几个关于歧义在人际交流中的作用的研究结果。例如，我们发现，模棱两可的面部表情可以增强人际沟通的顺畅程度。此外，我们还表明，参与者的视线跟随机器人脸部方向变化的潜伏期强烈地反映了参与者对机器人的识别。

Communication is a basis of social ability in human. It is an exchange of information among multiple entities, and within this, ambiguity has been thought to be unnecessary for communication. This study proposed a hypothesis that ambiguity is included in interpersonal communication and that it plays a criticalrole, not only in one-to-one relationshipbut also in a large scale social group. In order to test this hypothesis, we conducted simulation studies and behavioral experiments with a robot. For the achievement of this study, we developed a behavioral experiment system with a communication robot. With this experimental system, we could show severalfindings about the role of ambiguity in an interpersonal communication. For example we showed that ambiguous facial expressionenhances smoothness of an interpersonal communication. Further, we also showed that latency of participant's gaze following to face direction change of a robot strongly reflect a participant's recognition to the robot.