Telepresence robot with behavior synchrony: Merging the emotions and behaviors of users

Abstract

The authors propose a new telepresence robot that merges the behaviors of two users and realizes behavior synchrony automatically. Our telepresence robot synchronizes facial expressions, gaze, face orientation, and neck inclination to its client users. The robot exhibited behavior synchrony that gave the client user a feeling that he/she got consent from the remote user. We investigated how behavior synchrony for client partner improves the interactions of the telepresence robot, and examined how this system improves the quality of telepresence. Our evaluation indicates that effect of the synchrony exhibited by a telepresence robot increases the feeling of consent during a discussion.