Patent ID: 8738371

Claim:
An interactive apparatus comprising: a recognizing unit configured to recognize speech uttered by a user; an extracting unit configured to extract a request from the speech; a response determining unit configured to determine a response to the request on the basis of the request; a display unit configured to display the response; a speech output unit configured to output the response by speech; an output controller configured to output the response to at least one of the speech output unit and the display unit; a response storage unit configured to store a response correspondence table that contains the response, a watching degree representing a degree that the user watches the display unit, and an output form of the response to at least one of the speech output unit and the display unit; a transmitter configured to be mounted on the user and to transmit sensing information transmitted by electromagnetic waves for detecting a viewing direction of the user; a receiver configured to receive the sensing information from the transmitter; a direction detector configured to detect a viewing direction of the user based on the sensing information; and a watching-degree determining unit configured to determine the watching degree on the basis of the viewing direction; wherein the output controller obtains the output form corresponding to the response determined by the response determining unit and the watching degree determined by the watching-degree determining unit from the response correspondence table, and outputs the response according to the obtained output form.