How Can a Robot Calculate the Level of Visual Focus of Human’s Attention

Abstract

Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information. It is the taking possession by the mind in clear and colorful form of one out of what seem several simultaneous objects or trains of thought. The purpose of this work is to establish a human–robot interaction system to detect the visual focus of attention (VFOA) based on human attention (in case of both reading and browsing purposes). The system detects the person’s current task (attention) and estimates the level by detecting the head and estimating eye region specially detected iris center within eye area (gaze pattern calculation). The system also determines the interest or willingness of the target person to interact with it based upon a certain level of VFOA. Then, depending on the level of interest of the target person, the system/robot generates awareness and establishes a communication channel with her/him.