Interacting with NAO

Talking with NAO 

Prerequisite: Autonomous Life : Activated - Basic Channel : Installed

NAO should be placed in a quiet zone for best voice recognition.  Make sure there is no bright light or direct sunlight in NAO's face to avoid it being distracted.

To chat with NAO :

Step	Action
1	Get close enough, and make sure NAO has seen you. NAO will detect your presence if you approach within five feet (1.5 meter). For further details, read How NAO detects humans section below.
2	Check if NAO is listening, his eyes should be rotating blue. For further details, read How I know NAO is listening section below.
3	Say a short sentence, in one go. Pauses are interpreted as the end of the sentence, so do not hesitate: speak loud and clear, without hesitation. For further details, go to this link: Basic Channel - What can I say to NAO ?.

Tips

• What can I say? See: Basic Channel - What can I say to NAO.
• NAO says nothing, why? If NAO has not understood what you said, he starts listening again. Repeat louder or try another sentence.
• NAO starts talking before I finished, why? Pauses are interpreted as the end of the sentence. Speak loud and clear, without hesitation.
• NAO doesn’t listen, what can I do? Get close enough, in front of him, try to catch his gaze.

Understanding interaction 

How NAO detects humans

NAO tries, as much as possible, to establish and keep eye contact with people around.

To do so, NAO :

A	Looks in the direction of any detected stimulus - sound, movement, touch.
B	Checks if this stimulus may correspond to a human. If a human is detected, NAO's eyes turn to pink eyelashes for a moment, and he tries to keep eye contact with him/her, If not, NAO goes back to his previous occupation.

Limits

NAO does not react to new stimulus:

• When processing a stimulus (i.e. checking if it corresponds to a human). NAO does not react to other stimuli until he has finished to process the first one.
• When engaged in an Activity or a Dialog. When NAO is chatting with a human, he always keeps tracking the human until the human has left.
• When NAO is in the middle of an Activity, all his actions are exclusively defined by the Activity itself.

How I know NAO is listening 

To make sure NAO is listening, check his eye LEDs, and pay attention to the slight “blip” sounds.

Eye LEDs feedback:

Sound feedback 

Additionally, slight “bouloup” sounds can be heard when NAO starts and stops listening:

• when starting listening, the sound is ascending,
• when stopping the sound is descending.