Connected vehicles have become a promising platform for conversational agents. However, drivers might struggle to control systems that feature multiple AI agents. To improve the usability of increasingly complex systems and the user’s interaction experience, the integration of various conversational agents needs to be carefully considered. This study aims to investigate the following: What constitutes an efficient, user-friendly arrangement of the tasks performed by a home and a car artificial intelligence (AI) agent? What is the optimal method to trigger the use of such agents? A between-subjects factorial experiment was conducted with three types of AI agent setting (home AI generalist vs. vehicle AI generalist vs. home and vehicle AI specialists) and two activation methods (voice activation vs. push-to-talk activation). The results indicate that interacting with specialist AI agents enhances the perceived ease of use and the credibility of these agents. Furthermore, voice activation improves the social presence and attractiveness of an AI agent. The findings suggest that an AI agent that offers role specialization and a natural interaction method will improve drivers’ interaction experience.

In this study, the effect of the user choice on social responses to computer-synthesized speech is investigated. Three previous findings about social responses to computer-synthesized speech (i.e., social identification, proximate source orientation, and similarity attraction) were tested using the choice paradigm. Social identification and proximate source orientation effects were found even when users had chosen a computer voice at their discretion. In addition, the primacy effect in the user choice prevailed: Participants were more likely to select whatever voice that they heard first between two options. The similarity attraction effect, however, was negated by the cognitive dissonance effect after user choices. The robustness of social responses, its implications for human–computer interaction, and the importance of the user choice in voice-interface designs are discussed.

Networked interactivity is one of the essential factors that differentiate recent online educational games from traditional stand-alone CD-based games. Despite the growing popularity of online educational games, empirical studies about the effects of networked interactivity are relatively rare. The current study tests the effects of networked interactivity on game users' learning outcomes by comparing three groups (online educational quiz game vs. off-line educational quiz game vs. traditional classroom lecture). In addition, the study examines the mediating role of social presence in the context of educational games. Results indicate that networked interactivity in the online educational quiz game condition enhances game users' positive evaluation of learning, test performance, and feelings of social presence. However, there was no significant difference between the off-line educational quiz game and the lecture-based conditions in terms of learning outcomes. Further analyses indicate that feelings of social presence mediate the effect of networked interactivity on various learning outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This article reports on an experiment that critically tests user preference for an input modality (speech vs. Dual Tone Multiple Frequency[DTMF])in a phone-based message retrieval system. Unlike previous studies that compared these two modalities, the speech system used in this study was a fully functioning natural language system, and participants in this study were working professionals, rather than college students. Results indicate that (a) DTMF was more effective and efficient for linear tasks, whereas speech was better for nonlinear tasks; (b) speech was preferred to DTMF by a majority of users; (c) speech was judged as being more satisfying, more entertaining, and easier to use than DTMF; and (d) user preference for a particular modality was better predicted by user performance in nonlinear tasks rather than linear ones. Possible reasons for users' continuing preference for the speech modality even after experiencing fairly high recognition errors are discussed. Finally, the importance of examining speech user interfaces from other perspectives, in addition to efficiency maximization, is emphasized. The results of this study have theoretical, as well as practical, implications for the design of speech user interfaces and interactive voice response applications.

This study examines the interaction effect between user factors and media factors on feelings of social presence which are critical in the design of virtual reality systems and human computer interfaces. Both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 show that matching synthesized voice personality to user personality positively affects users' (especially extrovert users') feelings of social presence. Experiment 2 also reveals that users feel a stronger sense of social presence when the personality of synthesized voice matches the personality of textual content than when those two are mismatched. In both experiments, extrovert voice induces a stronger sense of presence than introvert voice. These results provide strong evidence for human's automatic social responses to artificial representations possessing humanistic properties such as language and personality. Finally, we discuss various applications of these findings in the design of human computer interfaces, as well as in the study of presence.

The advent of mobile devices and the wireless Internet is having a profound impact on the way people communicate, as well as on the user interaction paradigms used to access information that was traditionally accessible only through visual interfaces. Applications for mobile devices entail the integration of various data sources optimized for delivery to limited hardware resources and intermittently connected devices through wireless networks. Although telephone interfaces arise as one of the most prominent pervasive applications, they present interaction challenges such as the augmentation of speech recognition through natural language (NL) understanding and high-quality text-to-speech conversion. This article presents an experience in building an automated assistant that is natural to use and could become an alternative to a human assistant. The Mobile Assistant (MA) can read e-mail messages, book appointments, take phone messages, and provide access to personal-organizer information. Key components are a conversational interface, enterprise integration, and notifications tailored to user preferences. The focus of the research has been on supporting the pressing communication needs of mobile workers and overcoming technological hurdles such as achieving high accuracy speech recognition in noisy environments, NL understanding, and optimal message presentation on a variety of devices and modalities. The article outlines findings from the 2 broad field trials and lessons learned regarding the support of mobile workers with pervasive computing devices and emerging technologies.

This study examines whether people would interpret and respond to paralinguistic personality cues in computer-generated speech in the same way as they do human speech. Participants used a book-buying website and heard five book reviews in a 2 (synthesized voice personality: extrovert vs. introvert) by 2 (participant personality: extrovert vs. introvert) balanced, between-subjects experiment. Participants accurately recognized personality cues in TTS and showed strong similarity-attraction effects. Although the content was the same for all participants, when the personality of the computer voice matched their own personality: 1) participants regarded the computer voice as more attractive, credible, and informative; 2) the book review was evaluated more positively; 3) the reviewer was more attractive and credible; and 4) participants were more likely to buy the book. Match of user voice characteristics with TTS had no effect, confirming the social nature of the interaction. We discuss implications for HCI theory and design.