... The cover images represent Danbo and his little brother Mini Danbo. The characters are small ... more ... The cover images represent Danbo and his little brother Mini Danbo. The characters are small cardboard robots commissioned by Amazon Japan from Kiyohiko Azuma, the Japanese writer who designed Danbo to appear in his comedy manga serie Yotsuba. ...
Behavioral analysis has proven to be an important method to study human-robot interaction in real... more Behavioral analysis has proven to be an important method to study human-robot interaction in real-life environments providing highly relevant insights for developing new theoretical and practical models of appropriate social robot design. In this paper we describe our approach to study human-robot interaction by combining human behavioral analysis with robot evaluation results. The approach is exemplified by a case study
The quality assessment of multimodal conversational interfaces is influenced by many factors. Str... more The quality assessment of multimodal conversational interfaces is influenced by many factors. Stress and cognitive load are two of most important. In the literature, these two factors are considered as being related and accordingly summarized under the single concept of ‘cognitive demand’. However, our assumption is that even if they are related, these two factors can still occur independently. Therefore,
Implementation of adequate conversational structures is a key issue in developing successful inte... more Implementation of adequate conversational structures is a key issue in developing successful interactive user interfaces. A way of testing the adequacy of the structures is to prove the correct orientation of each communicative action towards a preceding action. We refer to this orientation leading to a certain response as the affordance of the communicative action. In this paper we present a case study where affordances of implemented conversational structures (including verbal and graphical elements) in a multimodal medical QA system are identified applying Conversation Analysis (CA) tools and tested using the Cognitive Walkthrough (CW) method. The CW method was modified to fit the conversational approach and tested with five expert evaluators. Results showed that the affordance analysis helps detecting inefficient constructions leading to disruptions in the dialog flow, spots unnecessary functions and provides important insights on systems easy-of-use.
In this paper we present the results of a pilot study investigating the impact of stress and cogn... more In this paper we present the results of a pilot study investigating the impact of stress and cognitive load on the perceived interaction quality of a multimodal dialogue system for crisis management. Four test subjects interacted with the system in four differently configured trials aiming to induce low/high levels of stress and cognitive load. To measure the level of stress
In this paper we present the results of a pilot study investigating the effects of agents' gender... more In this paper we present the results of a pilot study investigating the effects of agents' gender-ambiguous vs. gender-marked look on the perceived interaction quality of a multimodal question answering system. Eight test subjects interacted with three system agents, each having a feminine, masculine or gender-ambiguous look. The subjects were told each agent was representing a differently configured system. In fact, they were interacting with the same system. In the end, the subjects filled in an evaluation questionnaire and participated in an in-depth qualitative interview. The results showed that the user evaluation seemed to be influenced by the agent's gender look: the system represented by the feminine agent achieved on average the highest evaluation scores. On the other hand, the system represented by the gender-ambiguous agent was systematically lower rated. This outcome might be relevant for an appropriate agent look, especially since many designers tend to develop gender-ambiguous characters for interactive interfaces to match various users' preferences. However, additional empirical evidence is needed in the future to confirm our findings.
In this paper we present an experiment addressing the effect of voice pitch on the evaluation of ... more In this paper we present an experiment addressing the effect of voice pitch on the evaluation of a social robot receptionist. Twenty eight test participants interacted with two “female” robot characters: one with a high-pitched, exuberant voice, the other with a low-pitched, calm voice. Our results show that the high pitch robot was perceived significantly more attractive in terms of voice, behavior and personality. We also found that the increased level of the robot's attractiveness induced significantly better ratings on the overall enjoyment and overall interaction quality. With our study we would like to stress the importance of the voice, in general (and the voice pitch, in particular) in the social robot design and to encourage further research in this topic within the HCI (in particular HRI - Human Robot Interaction) community.
In this paper we present the evaluation results of an exploratory study performed in an open envi... more In this paper we present the evaluation results of an exploratory study performed in an open environment with the robot receptionist Olivia. The main focus of the study was to analyze relationships between the robot’s social skills and the perceived overall interaction quality, as well as to determine additional important interaction quality features with potential general validity. Our results show positive correlations between the investigated factors, as the ability to socialize with humans achieved the second highest correlation with the perceived interaction quality. One of the most relevant functional aspects for the interaction quality was found to be the ability to respond fast. Performance abilities, such as speech or object recognition were, surprisingly, considered less important. The voice pleasantness was regarded as one of the most important non-functional aspects being ranked higher than a nice physical appearance.
The quality assessment of multimodal conversational interfaces is influenced by many factors. Str... more The quality assessment of multimodal conversational interfaces is influenced by many factors. Stress and cognitive load are two of most important. In the literature, these two factors are considered as being related and accordingly summarized under the single concept of ‘cognitive demand’. However, our assumption is that even if they are related, these two factors can still occur independently. Therefore, it is essential to control their levels during the interaction in order to determine the impact that each factor has on the perceived conversational quality. In this paper we present preliminary experiments in which we tried to achieve a factor separation by inducing alternating low/high levels of both stress and cognitive load. The stress/cognitive load levels were manipulated by varying task difficulty, information presentation and time pressure. Physiological measurements, performance metrics, as well as subjective reports were deployed to validate the induced stress and cognitive load levels. Results showed that our manipulations were successful for the cognitive load and partly for the stress. The levels of both factors were better indicated by subjective reports and performance metrics than by physiological measurements.
In this paper we present an experiment addressing a critical issue in Voice User Interface (VUI) ... more In this paper we present an experiment addressing a critical issue in Voice User Interface (VUI) design, namely whether the user acceptance can be improved by having recorded voice prompts imitate his/her regional dialect. The claim was tested within a project aiming to develop voice animated virtual help desk assistants for intelligent mobile phone interfaces. 64 subjects native Singaporeans participated
... The cover images represent Danbo and his little brother Mini Danbo. The characters are small ... more ... The cover images represent Danbo and his little brother Mini Danbo. The characters are small cardboard robots commissioned by Amazon Japan from Kiyohiko Azuma, the Japanese writer who designed Danbo to appear in his comedy manga serie Yotsuba. ...
Behavioral analysis has proven to be an important method to study human-robot interaction in real... more Behavioral analysis has proven to be an important method to study human-robot interaction in real-life environments providing highly relevant insights for developing new theoretical and practical models of appropriate social robot design. In this paper we describe our approach to study human-robot interaction by combining human behavioral analysis with robot evaluation results. The approach is exemplified by a case study
The quality assessment of multimodal conversational interfaces is influenced by many factors. Str... more The quality assessment of multimodal conversational interfaces is influenced by many factors. Stress and cognitive load are two of most important. In the literature, these two factors are considered as being related and accordingly summarized under the single concept of ‘cognitive demand’. However, our assumption is that even if they are related, these two factors can still occur independently. Therefore,
Implementation of adequate conversational structures is a key issue in developing successful inte... more Implementation of adequate conversational structures is a key issue in developing successful interactive user interfaces. A way of testing the adequacy of the structures is to prove the correct orientation of each communicative action towards a preceding action. We refer to this orientation leading to a certain response as the affordance of the communicative action. In this paper we present a case study where affordances of implemented conversational structures (including verbal and graphical elements) in a multimodal medical QA system are identified applying Conversation Analysis (CA) tools and tested using the Cognitive Walkthrough (CW) method. The CW method was modified to fit the conversational approach and tested with five expert evaluators. Results showed that the affordance analysis helps detecting inefficient constructions leading to disruptions in the dialog flow, spots unnecessary functions and provides important insights on systems easy-of-use.
In this paper we present the results of a pilot study investigating the impact of stress and cogn... more In this paper we present the results of a pilot study investigating the impact of stress and cognitive load on the perceived interaction quality of a multimodal dialogue system for crisis management. Four test subjects interacted with the system in four differently configured trials aiming to induce low/high levels of stress and cognitive load. To measure the level of stress
In this paper we present the results of a pilot study investigating the effects of agents' gender... more In this paper we present the results of a pilot study investigating the effects of agents' gender-ambiguous vs. gender-marked look on the perceived interaction quality of a multimodal question answering system. Eight test subjects interacted with three system agents, each having a feminine, masculine or gender-ambiguous look. The subjects were told each agent was representing a differently configured system. In fact, they were interacting with the same system. In the end, the subjects filled in an evaluation questionnaire and participated in an in-depth qualitative interview. The results showed that the user evaluation seemed to be influenced by the agent's gender look: the system represented by the feminine agent achieved on average the highest evaluation scores. On the other hand, the system represented by the gender-ambiguous agent was systematically lower rated. This outcome might be relevant for an appropriate agent look, especially since many designers tend to develop gender-ambiguous characters for interactive interfaces to match various users' preferences. However, additional empirical evidence is needed in the future to confirm our findings.
In this paper we present an experiment addressing the effect of voice pitch on the evaluation of ... more In this paper we present an experiment addressing the effect of voice pitch on the evaluation of a social robot receptionist. Twenty eight test participants interacted with two “female” robot characters: one with a high-pitched, exuberant voice, the other with a low-pitched, calm voice. Our results show that the high pitch robot was perceived significantly more attractive in terms of voice, behavior and personality. We also found that the increased level of the robot's attractiveness induced significantly better ratings on the overall enjoyment and overall interaction quality. With our study we would like to stress the importance of the voice, in general (and the voice pitch, in particular) in the social robot design and to encourage further research in this topic within the HCI (in particular HRI - Human Robot Interaction) community.
In this paper we present the evaluation results of an exploratory study performed in an open envi... more In this paper we present the evaluation results of an exploratory study performed in an open environment with the robot receptionist Olivia. The main focus of the study was to analyze relationships between the robot’s social skills and the perceived overall interaction quality, as well as to determine additional important interaction quality features with potential general validity. Our results show positive correlations between the investigated factors, as the ability to socialize with humans achieved the second highest correlation with the perceived interaction quality. One of the most relevant functional aspects for the interaction quality was found to be the ability to respond fast. Performance abilities, such as speech or object recognition were, surprisingly, considered less important. The voice pleasantness was regarded as one of the most important non-functional aspects being ranked higher than a nice physical appearance.
The quality assessment of multimodal conversational interfaces is influenced by many factors. Str... more The quality assessment of multimodal conversational interfaces is influenced by many factors. Stress and cognitive load are two of most important. In the literature, these two factors are considered as being related and accordingly summarized under the single concept of ‘cognitive demand’. However, our assumption is that even if they are related, these two factors can still occur independently. Therefore, it is essential to control their levels during the interaction in order to determine the impact that each factor has on the perceived conversational quality. In this paper we present preliminary experiments in which we tried to achieve a factor separation by inducing alternating low/high levels of both stress and cognitive load. The stress/cognitive load levels were manipulated by varying task difficulty, information presentation and time pressure. Physiological measurements, performance metrics, as well as subjective reports were deployed to validate the induced stress and cognitive load levels. Results showed that our manipulations were successful for the cognitive load and partly for the stress. The levels of both factors were better indicated by subjective reports and performance metrics than by physiological measurements.
In this paper we present an experiment addressing a critical issue in Voice User Interface (VUI) ... more In this paper we present an experiment addressing a critical issue in Voice User Interface (VUI) design, namely whether the user acceptance can be improved by having recorded voice prompts imitate his/her regional dialect. The claim was tested within a project aiming to develop voice animated virtual help desk assistants for intelligent mobile phone interfaces. 64 subjects native Singaporeans participated
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Papers by Andreea Niculescu