Evaluation of Unimodal and Multimodal Communication Cues for Attracting Attention in Human-Robot Interaction

One of the most common tasks of a robot companion in the home is communication. In order to initiate an information exchangewith its human partner, the robot needs to attract the attention of the human. This paper presents results of two user studies (N = 12) to evaluate the effectiveness of unimodal and multimodal communication cues for attracting attention. Results showed that unimodal communication cues which involve sound generate the fastest reaction times. Contrary to expectations, multimodal communication cues resulted in longer reaction timeswith respect to the unimodal communication cue that produced the shortest reaction time.