Implementation of a Biologically Inspired Responsive Joint Attention System for a Social Robot

The concept of joint attention holds significant importance in human interaction and is pivotal in establishing rapport, understanding, and effective communication. Within social robotics, enhancing user perception and fostering a sense of natural interaction with robots becomes a central element. I...

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Main Authors: Jesús García‐Martínez, Juan José Gamboa‐Montero, José Carlos Castillo, Álvaro Castro‐González, Miguel Angel Salichs
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2025-06-01
Series:Advanced Intelligent Systems
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202400650
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author Jesús García‐Martínez
Juan José Gamboa‐Montero
José Carlos Castillo
Álvaro Castro‐González
Miguel Angel Salichs
author_facet Jesús García‐Martínez
Juan José Gamboa‐Montero
José Carlos Castillo
Álvaro Castro‐González
Miguel Angel Salichs
author_sort Jesús García‐Martínez
collection DOAJ
description The concept of joint attention holds significant importance in human interaction and is pivotal in establishing rapport, understanding, and effective communication. Within social robotics, enhancing user perception and fostering a sense of natural interaction with robots becomes a central element. In this sense, emulating human‐centric qualities in social robots, such as joint attention, defined as the ability of two or more individuals to simultaneously focus on a common event, can increase their acceptability. This work introduces a responsive joint attention system integrated into the social robot Mini. The system calculates the position of the user's head, body, and face orientations in real‐time. With this information, the robot can perform natural movements based on the user's gaze and pointing directions. Moreover, the robot employs verbal expressions to alert the user when distractions are detected, enhancing the perception of the robot's responsiveness. This study also explores differences in user perception of the robot when the joint attention system is active. A user experiment involving an interactive gaming scenario is proposed. The results show significance in various social presence dimensions, validating the system and indicating that users discern when the joint attention system is active and perceive the robot's responsive behavior.
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series Advanced Intelligent Systems
spelling doaj-art-c68cbea271ac438eaac6ba56c2b8b3432025-08-20T02:07:35ZengWileyAdvanced Intelligent Systems2640-45672025-06-0176n/an/a10.1002/aisy.202400650Implementation of a Biologically Inspired Responsive Joint Attention System for a Social RobotJesús García‐Martínez0Juan José Gamboa‐Montero1José Carlos Castillo2Álvaro Castro‐González3Miguel Angel Salichs4RoboticsLab University Carlos III of Madrid Av. Universidad, 30 Leganés 28911 SpainRoboticsLab University Carlos III of Madrid Av. Universidad, 30 Leganés 28911 SpainRoboticsLab University Carlos III of Madrid Av. Universidad, 30 Leganés 28911 SpainRoboticsLab University Carlos III of Madrid Av. Universidad, 30 Leganés 28911 SpainRoboticsLab University Carlos III of Madrid Av. Universidad, 30 Leganés 28911 SpainThe concept of joint attention holds significant importance in human interaction and is pivotal in establishing rapport, understanding, and effective communication. Within social robotics, enhancing user perception and fostering a sense of natural interaction with robots becomes a central element. In this sense, emulating human‐centric qualities in social robots, such as joint attention, defined as the ability of two or more individuals to simultaneously focus on a common event, can increase their acceptability. This work introduces a responsive joint attention system integrated into the social robot Mini. The system calculates the position of the user's head, body, and face orientations in real‐time. With this information, the robot can perform natural movements based on the user's gaze and pointing directions. Moreover, the robot employs verbal expressions to alert the user when distractions are detected, enhancing the perception of the robot's responsiveness. This study also explores differences in user perception of the robot when the joint attention system is active. A user experiment involving an interactive gaming scenario is proposed. The results show significance in various social presence dimensions, validating the system and indicating that users discern when the joint attention system is active and perceive the robot's responsive behavior.https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202400650human–robot interactionsjoint attentionsocial presencesocial robotsvisual attention
spellingShingle Jesús García‐Martínez
Juan José Gamboa‐Montero
José Carlos Castillo
Álvaro Castro‐González
Miguel Angel Salichs
Implementation of a Biologically Inspired Responsive Joint Attention System for a Social Robot
Advanced Intelligent Systems
human–robot interactions
joint attention
social presence
social robots
visual attention
title Implementation of a Biologically Inspired Responsive Joint Attention System for a Social Robot
title_full Implementation of a Biologically Inspired Responsive Joint Attention System for a Social Robot
title_fullStr Implementation of a Biologically Inspired Responsive Joint Attention System for a Social Robot
title_full_unstemmed Implementation of a Biologically Inspired Responsive Joint Attention System for a Social Robot
title_short Implementation of a Biologically Inspired Responsive Joint Attention System for a Social Robot
title_sort implementation of a biologically inspired responsive joint attention system for a social robot
topic human–robot interactions
joint attention
social presence
social robots
visual attention
url https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202400650
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AT juanjosegamboamontero implementationofabiologicallyinspiredresponsivejointattentionsystemforasocialrobot
AT josecarloscastillo implementationofabiologicallyinspiredresponsivejointattentionsystemforasocialrobot
AT alvarocastrogonzalez implementationofabiologicallyinspiredresponsivejointattentionsystemforasocialrobot
AT miguelangelsalichs implementationofabiologicallyinspiredresponsivejointattentionsystemforasocialrobot