An approach to the eye contact through the outstaring game niramekko

The role and mechanism of the eye contact in dialogues are investigated. First the precision of the gaze direction detection by humans is investigated experimentally. Next an outstaring game (niramekko) experiment, in which players have to keep looking at each other´s eyes without laughing, was conducted. What we found is the following: A human cannot determine with confidence whether another person is really looking at him or not. But once he thinks that another person is looking at him, he feels a strong gaze pressure from him. The implication of the above finding for the eye contact is discussed. To investigate a mechanism for the establishment of the eye contact, we are developing an eye contact robot. The goal of our research is to make a robot dialogue with humans by understanding and manipulating the gaze information.