Evaluation of Emi interaction with non-disabled children in nursery school using wizard of Oz technique

Abstract

Research in the field of emotional interaction is discussed here, for the EmotiRob project, to maintain interaction with children in the 4-to-8 year old age range. The objective of this project is to give comfort to vulnerable children and/or those undergoing long-term hospitalisation through the help of an emotional robot companion. The studies carried out on perception and emotional synthesis have allowed us to develop an experimental stuffed robot Emi, using an emotional model, iGrace, allowing for emotional reaction based on the speech of the user. This paper briefly presents the EmotiRob project and how emotion has been used for Emi. The last experiment done with children to evaluate their interaction with Emi is then described.