Gender identification bias induced with texture images on a life size retro-projected face screen

Abstract

A retro-projected face display system has great advantages in being able to present realistic 3D appearances to users and to easily switch the appearance of the humanoid robot heads animated on the display. Therefore, it is useful to evaluate how effectively users can perceive various information from such devices and what type of animation is suitable for human-robot interaction - in particular, face-to-face communication with robots. In this paper, we examine how facial texture images affect people's ability to identify the gender of faces displayed on a retro-projected face screen system known as Mask-bot. In an evaluation study, we use a female face screen as the 3D output surface, and display various face images morphed between male and female. Subjects are asked to rate the gender of each projected face. We found that even though the output 3D mask screen has a female shape, gender identification is strongly determined by texture images, especially in the case of high-quality images.