Voice cloning techniques using deep neural networks have been used for frauds, such as false financial transactions or fake news, limiting their widespread application. However, when incorporated with communication robots, voice cloning may increase social connectedness for isolated people. Herein, we suggested the concept of a voice-cloned communication robot (VCR), equipped with acquaintances’ voices to allow people in isolation to feel connected with their acquaintances. We developed a prototype VCR, conducted exploratory qualitative and quantitative studies, and verified its potential effectiveness in enhancing the mental health of isolated people.

This study explores the effects of the positioning strategy of domestic social robots on the purchase intention of consumers. Specifically, the authors investigate the effects of robot positioning as companions with as assistants and as appliances. The study results showed that the participants preferred the domestic social robots positioned as assistants rather than as companions. Moreover, for male participants, the positioning of domestic social robots as appliances was also preferred over robots positioned as companions. The study results also showed that the effects of positioning on the purchase intention were mediated by the participants’ perception of usefulness regarding the robot.

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of category labels of domestic robots on their consumer acceptance. The authors posited that compared to the label robots, a pre-existent category label such as home appliances would increase the consumers' evaluation of and purchase intention towards the products. It is suggested that the pre-existent category label helps consumers to perceive the functional values they stand to gain by consuming the product more than the label robots, which is often related to the concepts generated around cultural artifacts. The results of the study confirmed the hypotheses, and further discussions are provided in this paper.

In smart home environments, central interfaces that take commands from users and give orders to each relevant device appropriately are increasingly important. We investigated the type of central interface that consumers are more willing to adopt and whether these interfaces enhance the evaluation of services provided by smart home devices. This study confirms that speaker interfaces are preferred over social robots, speaker interfaces are perceived by users as more persuasive, and the adoption of central interfaces increases the overall service evaluation.

This study explores the effect of robot design approaches on the consumers' acceptance of robots. We executed a 2-level (robot design: human-oriented vs. product-oriented) between participants experiment (N=52). Participants categorized a human-oriented robot and a product-oriented robot differently, and a product-oriented robot was more effective than a human-oriented robot for consumers' evaluation and purchase intention toward robots.