Page 197 - Designing Sociable Robots

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178 Chapter 10

happy sad disgust

repulsion mad pleased

fear tired sly grin

stern anger surprise
Figure 10.12
The sketches used in the evaluation, adapted from Faigin (1990). The labels are for presentation purposes here; in
the study they were labeled with the letters ranging from a through l.

curvature at the extremes of the lips, but others tried to match it to the lips in the line
drawings. Occasionally, Kismet’s frightened grimace was matched to a smile, or its smile
matched to repulsion. Some misclassifications arose from matching the robot’s expression
to a line drawing that conveyed the same sentiment to the subject. For instance, Kismet’s
expression for disgust was matched to the line sketch of the “sly grin” because the subject
interpreted both as “sneering” although none of the facial features match. Some associated
Kismet’s surprise expression with the line drawing of “happiness.” There seems to be a
positive valence communicated though Kismet’s expression for surprise. Misclassifications
also arose when subjects only seemed to match a single facial feature to a line drawing
instead of multiple features. For instance, one subject matched Kismet’s stern expression
to the sketch of the “sly grin,” noting the similarity in the brows (although the robot is not
smiling). Overall, the subjects seem to intuitively match Kismet’s facial features to those of
the line drawings, and interpreted their shape in a similar manner. It is interesting to note that
the robot’s ears seem to communicate an intuitive sense of arousal to the subjects as well.