A robot having a spherical casing, a control circuit and a communication circuit configured to connect to an external server is provided. The robot further includes a set of wheels included in the spherical casing, which comes into contact with an inner surface of the spherical casing and configured to rotate the spherical casing when the driving wheels are driven. The control circuit is configured to, when determining that performing a predetermined processing in response to an input instruction received from a user requires a predetermined amount of time or more, causes each of the set of driving wheels to rotate in opposite directions from each other to rotate the spherical casing during the predetermined processing. When the predetermined processing is complete and a response is to be output, the control circuit stops rotation of the spherical casing with the set of wheels facing toward the user.

A system includes an animated character head having one or more processors configured to receive an input, to make an animation selection based on the input, and to provide a first control based on the animation selection. The animated character head also includes a display configured to provide an indication of the animation selection for visualization by a performer operating the animated character head.

A robotic creature system includes an actuatable head defining eyes, an eyelid mechanism, a body, a drivetrain, and a set of sensors. A method for robotic creature operation includes: detecting an event associated with a technological imperfection and automatically performing a set of expressive actions associated with the event.

A social robot provides more believable, spontaneous, and understandable expressive communication via embodied communication capabilities by which a robot can express one or more of: paralinguistic audio expressions, sound effects or audio/vocal filters, expressive synthetic speech or pre-recorded speech, body movements and expressive gestures, body postures, lighting effects, aromas, and on-screen content, such as graphics, animations, photos, videos. These are coordinated with produced speech to enhance the expressiveness of the communication and non-verbal communication apart from speech communication.

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium stores a generation program that causes a computer to execute a process including: acquiring a character string recognized from a voice of a speaker, and data representing a movement of the speaker in a period corresponding to a period in which the voice is output; and generating information indicating a correspondence relationship between a character string and a movement based on the acquired character string and the acquired data representing the movement.

A data exchange system is disclosed herein for receiving motion and attribute data corresponding to user interactions via a robot animation application. The motion and attribute data can be associated with a virtual animation of a virtual character using the robot animation application on a computing device. The data exchange system can translate the motion and attribute data for implementation on a physical or virtual robotic device to perform the virtual animation.

A communication device includes a face portion having a pair of eye portions; light-transmissive covers each covering a corresponding one of the pair of eye portions; a display panel configured to display a design in which expression of an eye is stylized; an optical fiber bundle configured to transmit the design displayed on the display panel to the light-transmissive covers; and a control unit configured to selectively display the design on the display panel.

An in-vehicle robot includes a base member, an outer member, an inner member, and first, second, and third power transmission units. The base member is rotatably mounted to a mounting object. The outer member is supported by the base member. The inner member is positioned inside the outer member and supported by the outer member. The first power transmission unit allows the inner member to rotate around a first axis with respect to the outer member. The first axis passes through a portion of the inner member supported by the outer member. The second power transmission unit allows the outer member to rotate around a second axis. The second axis passes through a portion of the outer member supported by the base member. The third power transmission unit allows the outer member to rotate around a third axis that is non-parallel to both the first axis and the second axis.

Provided is a voice interaction device capable of reducing a sense of unfriendliness given to a conversation partner. The voice interaction device is incorporated in an interactive robot. The voice interaction device includes a display unit disposed at positions of eyes of the interactive robot and configured to display the eyes of the interactive robot; a distance measurement unit configured to measure a distance between the interactive robot and the conversation partner; and an eye control unit configured to set a size of each of pupils of the interactive robot displayed on the display unit when the distance measured by the distance measurement unit is less than a predetermined distance to be larger than a size of each of the pupils displayed on the display unit when the measured distance is equal to or more than the predetermined distance.

Provided is a voice interaction device capable of turning lines of sight of eyes of an interactive robot to a conversation partner without inhibiting voice interaction. The voice interaction device is incorporated in the interactive robot. The voice interaction device includes a photographing unit configured to photograph an image; an environment recognition unit configured to recognize a position of a conversation partner captured in the image; a display unit disposed at positions of the eyes of the interactive robot and configured to display the eyes of the interactive robot; and an eye control unit configured to turn the lines of sight of the eyes of the interactive robot displayed on the display unit to a position where the conversation partner is recognized.