Perceptual Evaluation of Blended Sonification of Mechanical Robot Sounds Produced by Emotionally Expressive Gestures

Augmenting Consequential Sounds to Improve Non-verbal Robot Communication

Bibliographic Data

ID21199253
AuthorsEmma Frid (0000-0002-4422-5223, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, corresponding author), Roberto Bresin (0000-0002-3086-0322, KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
Year2022
Volume14
Issue2
Pages357-372
Publication date2022-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Social Robotics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1875-4791 • E-ISSN: 1875-4805
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12369-021-00788-4
OpenAlexW3164009507
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited42

This paper presents two experiments focusing on perception of mechanical sounds produced by expressive robot movement and blended sonifications thereof. In the first experiment, 31 participants evaluated emotions conveyed by robot sounds through free-form text descriptions. The sounds were inherently produced by the movements of a NAO robot and were not specifically designed for communicative purposes. Results suggested no strong coupling between the emotional expression of gestures and how sounds inherent to these movements were perceived by listeners; joyful gestures did not necessarily result in joyful sounds. A word that reoccurred in text descriptions of all sounds, regardless of the nature of the expressive gesture, was “stress”. In the second experiment, blended sonification was used to enhance and further clarify the emotional expression of the robot sounds evaluated in the first experiment. Analysis of quantitative ratings of 30 participants revealed that the blended sonification successfully contributed to enhancement of the emotional message for sound models designed to convey frustration and joy. Our findings suggest that blended sonification guided by perceptual research on emotion in speech and music can successfully improve communication of emotions through robot sounds in auditory-only conditions

Cognitive psychology · Emotional expression · Gesture · Human–computer interaction · Nonverbal communication · Perception · Robot · Sonification · Speech recognition · Action Observation and Synchronization · Communication · Computer Science · Multisensory perception and integration · Neuroscience and Music Perception · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence

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