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

沟通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，歧义被认为是不必要的通信。本研究提出了一种假设，即模糊性不仅在一对一的人际关系中，而且在大规模的社会群体中都起着至关重要的作用。为了验证这一假设，我们对机器人进行了模拟研究和行为实验。为了完成这项研究，我们开发了一个带有通信机器人的行为实验系统。有了这个实验系统，我们可以展示关于歧义在人际交往中的作用的几个发现。例如，我们表明，模棱两可的面部表情可以增强人际交流的流畅性。此外，我们还发现，参与者的目光跟随机器人的面部方向变化的延迟强烈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.