An emotional expression system with vibrotactile feedback during the robot's speech

TL;DR

This paper presents a vibrotactile feedback system that conveys emotional content during robot speech, aiming to enhance communication by influencing psychological states and intimacy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel vibrotactile feedback system driven by emotion estimation from text, integrated into a tactile display for improved robot-human interaction.

Findings

Vibrotactile feedback influenced psychological states.

Participants reported increased intimacy levels.

The system effectively conveyed emotional content.

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a system that provides vibrotactile feedback corresponding to the emotional content of text when a communication robot speaks. We used OpenAI's "GPT-4o Mini" for emotion estimation, extracting valence and arousal values from the text. The amplitude and frequency of vibrotactile stimulation using sine waves were controlled on the basis of estimated emotional values. We assembled a palm-sized tactile display to present these vibrotactile stimuli. In the experiment, participants listened to the robot's speech while holding the device and then evaluated their psychological state. The results suggested that the communication accompanied by the vibrotactile feedback could influence psychological states and intimacy levels.