Effectiveness of Manga Technique in Expressing Facial Expressions of Welfare Robot

We have been developing a communication robot “advice robot” that encourages and suggests actions to an elderly person, such as having a meal, taking a bath, taking medicine, etc. If the robot’s affective expressions are weak, an elderly user may not be able to understand or follow the robot’s suggestions. We focused on the vertical line and shadow techniques used in manga, or Japanese comics, to strengthen the affective expressions of disgust and fear, which can be difficult for the robot to express. The results of our experiment showed that the impression of disgust was strengthened by adding vertical lines. On the other hand, the impression of fear could not be strengthened by using the manga techniques. However, when the vertical lines were added to a happy face, the impression of fear was greater than when the lines were added to a fearful face.