Different gaze behavior in human-robot interaction in Asperger´s syndrome: An eye-tracking study

Author

Damm, Oliver ; Malchus, Karoline ; Jaecks, Petra ; Krach, Soeren ; Paulus, Frieder ; Naber, Marnix ; Jansen, Anton ; Kamp-Becker, Inge ; Einhaeuser-Treyer, Wolfgang ; Stenneken, Prisca ; Wrede, Britta

Author_Institution

Fac. of Technol., Bielefeld Univ., Bielefeld, Germany

fYear

2013

fDate

26-29 Aug. 2013

Firstpage

368

Lastpage

369

Abstract

Social robots are often applied in recreational contexts to improve the experience of using technical systems, but they are also increasingly used for therapeutic purposes. In this study, we compared how patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) interact with a social robot and a human actor. We examined the gaze behavior of nine ASD patients and 15 matched controls using a mobile eye-tracker. Participants performed a task in which they were required to follow the gaze of a robot or human actor. Our results show that ASD patients preferentially maintain eye contact during interaction with the social robot as compared to the human actor.

Keywords

diseases; human-robot interaction; medical robotics; object tracking; patient treatment; ASD patients; Aspergers syndrome; autism spectrum disorder; gaze behavior; human actor; human-robot interaction; mobile eye-tracker; social robot; therapeutic purposes; Autism; Educational institutions; Face; Human-robot interaction; Pediatrics; Robots; Variable speed drives; ASD; HRI; gaze behavior; social robotics;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

RO-MAN, 2013 IEEE

Conference_Location

Gyeongju

ISSN

1944-9445

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ROMAN.2013.6628501

Filename

6628501