Lien-Chieh Shen

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Lien-Chieh Shen is a pioneering researcher in human-robot interaction, with a primary focus on lifelike facial robotics and speech synchronization. His most cited work, "Oral mechanism design on face robot for lip-synchronized speech" (2013), addresses a critical challenge in social robotics: the uncanny valley effect caused by asynchronous lip movements during robot speech. Shen demonstrated that even minor mismatches between audio and lip postures evoke strong negative reactions—fakeness, horror, and awkwardness—in human listeners, which can distort speech perception and undermine trust. By designing a minimalist oral mechanism that achieves convincing lip-synchronized speech with fewer actuators, he made robotic faces more expressive, efficient, and socially acceptable. This contribution has implications for assistive robotics, entertainment, and human-robot communication. Though his citation count is modest, Shen’s work is foundational for researchers aiming to bridge the gap between mechanical motion and naturalistic expression. His insights into the perceptual consequences of asynchrony remain highly relevant as the field moves toward more believable social robots.