The aim of our research is to develop “communication robots” that naturally interact with humans and support daily human activities based on advanced interaction capabilities with their human-like bodies. Since the target audience of a communication robot is ordinary people who do not have specialized computing and engineering knowledge, a conversational interface using both verbal and non-verb...

Making a reference in a common frame of reference, known as pointing, is an important part of communication between collaborators. We research a pointing mechanism called semantic pointing in collaborative applications where the collaborators’ representation of the interface varies. A telepointer, commonly used for pointing in a collaborative application, is not adequate. We demonstrate semanti...

The identity of the person talking is likely to constrain the things that they talk about. Adults can use talker acoustics to make on-line predictions about upcoming spoken material (Van Berkum et al., 2008). However, this cue to meaning may take time to learn. Do preschoolers consider who is talking when they are comprehending spoken sentences? I explored this question in two eye-tracked pictu...

Approaches to care that focus solely on biomedical needs are still rife in dementia; however, a person-centred approach is emerging that focuses on 'seeing the person'. This article explores the literature on person-centred dementia care to determine if it is an ideal rather than a reality. The background to the development of person-centred care is presented with reference to policies in place...

OBJECTIVE To illustrate the effect of common mistakes when using 24-hour national dietary survey data to estimate the prevalence of inadequate nutrient intakes. DESIGN Raw data on nutrient intake from the Australian 1995 National Nutrition Survey were adjusted for within-person variance using standard techniques and corrected for underreporting using the criteria of Goldberg et al. The distri...