If looks could kill: Humanoid robots play a gaze-based social game with humans

Gaze plays an important role in everyday communication between humans. Eyes are not only used to perceive information during interaction, but also to control it. Humanoid robots on the other hand are not yet very proficient in understanding and using gaze. In our study we enabled two humanoid robots to perceive and exert gaze actions. We then performed a pilot experiment with the two android robots playing the 'Wink Murder' game with human players. We demonstrate that the designed framework allows the robots to complete the game successfully, validating the efficacy of our gaze tracking system. Moreover, human participants exhibited a rich variety of natural behaviors in the game, suggesting that it could represent a valid scenario for a more in-depth investigation of human-humanoid interaction.