Patent ID: 6967455

Claim:
A visuoauditory system for a robot, characterized in that it comprises: an audition module including at least a pair of microphones for collecting external sounds; a vision module including a camera for taking an image in front of the robot; a motor control module including a drive motor for turning the robot horizontally; an association module for combining events from said audition module, said visual module and said motor control module to produce streams; and an attention control module for effecting attention control on the basis of the streams produced by said association module, whereby: said audition module in response to sound signals from said microphones is adapted to extract pitches therefrom, separate their sound sources from each other and locate sound sources such as to identify a sound source as at least one speaker, thereby extracting an auditory event; said vision module on the basis of an image taken by the camera is adapted to identify by face, and locate, each such speaker, thereby extracting a visual event therefor; said motor control module in response to a rotary position of said drive motor is adapted to extract a motor event therefrom; said association module on the basis of the auditory event from said audition module, the visual event from said vision module and the motor event from said motor control module is adapted to form an auditory stream and a visual stream and then associate these streams with each other to form an association stream; and said attention control module in effecting the attention control is adapted to make a plan for a course in which to control said drive motor in said motor control module in accordance with said streams.