As readers recall, I'd previously reviewed Richard Abbott's debut sci-fi novel, Far from the Spaceports, later returning for more Mitnash and Slate in its sequel, Timing. It was rather exciting listening to it, and I am so pleased to have the opportunity to share it here, along with some author comments as to the linguistics involved in setting up the pieces. First, for those unfamiliar with the novels and their plots, I've linked the book covers to their respective Amazon blurbs. Abbott's world-building opens a new type of sci-fi, one accessible even to those not typically enamored of the genre (such as myself), and the above-mentioned duo will capture your imagination as they seek to solve the mysteries of high-tech crime in space. Today you'll hear--and can read along--a bit of discussion between Mitnash and Slate, along with another pair, Rydal and Capstone, as the group talks about oddities in the data they are studying.

Turn taking is a fundamental part of human communication. Our goal is to devise a turntaking framework for human-robot interaction that, like the human skill, represents something fundamental about interaction, generic to context or domain. We propose a model of turn taking, and conduct an experiment with human subjects to inform this model. Our findings from this study suggest that information flow is an integral part of human floor-passing behavior. Following this, we implement autonomous floor relinquishing on a robot and discuss our insights into the nature of a general turn-taking model for human-robot interaction.