The function of off-gaze in human-robot interaction

When and how do users interrupt the interaction with a robot and turn to the experimenter? Usually it is assumed that experimenters affect the interaction negatively and should ideally not be present at all. However, in interaction situations with autonomous systems and inexperienced users this is often not possible for safety reasons. Thus, the participants indeed at times switch their focus of attention from the robot to the experimenter. Instead of seeing this as something purely negative, we argue that answering the questions of when, why and how this happens actually bears important information about the state of the interaction and the users´ understanding of it. Therefore, we analyzed a study conducted in a home tour scenario with this respect and indeed discovered certain situations when the users turned away from the robot and towards the experimenter.