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About

Naomi Harte is a leading researcher in human-robot interaction and affective computing, with a focus on how emotional expressions shape communication between humans and machines. Her work explores the nuanced interplay between visual and auditory cues in robots and avatars, particularly how mismatched emotional signals—such as a smiling face paired with a neutral voice—affect human perception and cooperation. Harte’s studies have revealed a “Smiling McGurk Effect” in human-robot interaction, demonstrating that multisensory integration influences emotional perception even when one interlocutor is artificial. Her highly cited paper “Survival at the Museum” (15 citations) examines the critical role of correctly interpreting emotional expressions for successful human-machine cooperation, while “Smiling in the Face and Voice of Avatars and Robots” (14 citations) provides foundational evidence for cross-modal emotional processing. More recently, her work on turn-taking prediction in noisy environments (2025) advances the development of more naturalistic conversational robots. Harte’s contributions are essential for designing socially intelligent robots that can navigate the complexities of real-world emotional communication.