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About

Samer Al Moubayed is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction, multiparty dialogue systems, and social robotics, best known as a principal architect of the Furhat robot head — one of the most influential platforms in conversational AI and social robotics. His landmark 2012 paper introducing Furhat, a back-projected human-like robot head designed for natural multiparty interaction, has garnered nearly 300 citations and catalyzed an entirely new approach to embodied human-machine communication. Alongside Furhat, Al Moubayed developed IrisTK, a widely adopted toolkit enabling rapid prototyping of real-time multiparty face-to-face interaction systems, accumulating nearly 100 citations. His research has made foundational contributions to understanding gaze perception and turn-taking in dialogue, demonstrated through influential work such as "Taming Mona Lisa," which explored how synthesized gaze shapes human perception and communication flow. His ID-Match system further extended his impact into personalized human-robot interaction through novel computer vision and RFID integration. With consistent contributions spanning robot backchannels, child engagement modeling, and lip-reading in animated faces, Al Moubayed's body of work has fundamentally shaped how machines perceive, manage, and participate in natural human social interaction.