Anticipatory Gaze Dynamics in Human-to-Human Object Handover

The handover of objects between two humans requires mutual visual attention between individuals. This paper investigates the timing and focus of visual attention during human-human object handover, and how this attention changes with handover role. Two handover role configurations were studied: Giver initiated handover and Receiver initiated handover. To assess visual attention, we examined gaze intersections with the handover object and the final handover location, utilizing a dataset of motion capture and eye tracking data with over 3600 trials. Statistically significant differences in gaze behavior based on the role and action of each subject were observed. These findings provide useful information about how humans coordinate their gaze during handover, and may be applied to work in human-robot interactions.