Smart Speakers Research Articles

Generating voice user interfaces from web sites

ABSTRACT Virtual assistants allow users to interact with apps using a conversational mode. A particular kind of device supporting virtual assistants is the smart speaker, which allows end users to access contents and services, perform searches and command smart environments via voice interaction. These devices are gaining relevance among users, and the number of apps available for giving them more conversational capabilities grows constantly. However, there is a gap between what can be achieved using these devices and the information available on the web, i.e. most web apps don't have one smart speaker app counterpart. In this work, we present a two-step approach to defining conversational interfaces for virtual assistants based on existing web sites. During the first step, the user creates web content blocks, which describe target contents and the strategy for retrieving them. In the second step, the user uses web content blocks to specify the conversational interface. Although the approach could be considered generic enough for any kind of conversational interface, we focus our research on voice user interfaces, considering smart speaker apps as a major target. With our approach, apps based on voice user interfaces for smart speakers may be developed in a no-code manner. We describe and illustrate the approach by presenting usage examples and an evaluation using the Alexa service and an Amazon Echo device. The evaluation shows promising results for two case studies where there is no significant difference between the user experience when comparing solutions developed using the Alexa SDK versus apps using our approach.

Smart Speaker and ICT Use in Relationship With Social Connectedness During the Pandemic: Loneliness and Social Isolation Found in Older Adults in Low-Income Housing.

Social well-being of older adults living in low-income housing was disproportionately affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. We explored low-income residents' experiences of social isolation and loneliness and strategies to remain socially connected during the pandemic. As part of a larger, 3-phase user-centered design study, we conducted a qualitative study using focus groups to gain insights into social isolation experiences and the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs), including smart speakers, in social connectedness (N = 25, 76% African American). We also collected survey data to describe social isolation, loneliness, and current ICT use in the sample. Participants included both smart speaker users and nonusers. Experiences of social isolation and loneliness varied by participants' sociodemographic characteristics and previous experiences with smart speakers. Qualitative analysis showed participants demonstrated coping strategies developed during the pandemic to adapt to new norms of connecting with others, including technology-enabled social interactions. Participants expressed a strong desire to build community together in their facilities and highlighted the potential role of smart speakers in making meaningful social connections, encompassing safety checks to have a means for emergencies, and providing a virtual companion. Access, digital literacy, training, security, and privacy issues were discussed as factors affecting their adoption of new ICT for enhanced social connectedness. This study highlights the importance of understanding the unique social isolation experience, demographics, and social determinants of health of low-income residents to develop ICT-based interventions for social connectedness.

Understanding acceptance of contactless monitoring technology in home-based dementia care: a cross-sectional survey study among informal caregivers.

There is a growing interest to support home-based dementia care via contactless monitoring (CM) technologies which do not require any body contact, and allow informal caregivers to remotely monitor the health and safety of people with dementia (PwD). However, sustainable implementation of CM technologies requires a better understanding of informal caregivers' acceptance. This study aimed to examine the (1) general acceptance of CM technology for home-based dementia care, (2) acceptance of different sensor types and use scenarios, and (3) differences between accepters and refusers of CM technology. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among n = 304 informal caregivers of community-dwelling PwD [Mean(SD) age = 58.5 (10.7)] in the Netherlands and Germany. The survey contained a textual and graphical introduction to CM technologies, as well as questions targeting (1) general acceptance of CM technology, (2) acceptance of seven different contactless sensor types, (3) acceptance of five different use scenarios, and (4) caregivers' own and their care recipients' personal characteristics. Data were examined using descriptive and bivariate analyses. Participants' general acceptance of CM technology was slightly positive. We found significant differences in acceptability between contactless sensor types (p < .001). RF-based sensors (e.g., radar) and light sensors were considered most acceptable, whereas camera-based sensors and audio sensors (e.g., microphones, smart speakers) were seen as least acceptable for home-based dementia care. Furthermore, participants' acceptance of different use scenarios for CM technology varied significantly (p < .001). The intention to use CM technology was highest for detecting emergencies (e.g., falls, wandering), and lowest for predicting acute situations (e.g., fall prediction). Lastly, accepters and refusers of CM technology significantly differed regarding gender (p = .010), their relation with the PwD (p = .003), eHealth literacy (p = .025), personal innovativeness (p < .001), usage of safety technology (p = .002), and the PwD's type of cognitive impairment (p = .035) and housing situation (p = .023). Our findings can inform the development and implementation of acceptable CM technology to support home-based dementia care. Specifically, we show which sensor types and use scenarios should be prioritized from the informal caregiver's view. Additionally, our study highlights several personal characteristics associated with informal caregivers' acceptance of CM technology that should be taken into account during implementation.

Localizing Multiple Acoustic Sources With a Single Microphone Array

The ability to localize acoustic sources can greatly improve the perception of smart devices (e.g., a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa). In this work, we study the problem of concurrently localizing multiple acoustic sources with a single smart device. Our proposal called <i>Symphony</i> is the first complete solution to tackle the above problem, including method, theory, and practice. The method stems from the insight that the geometric layout of microphones on the array determines the unique relationship among signals from the same source along the same arriving path. We also establish the theoretical model of <i>Symphony</i>, which reveals the relation between localization performance (resolution and coverage) and impacting factors (sampling rate, array aperture, and array-wall distance). Moreover, the ability to separate and localize multiple sources is also studied theoretically and numerically. We implement <i>Symphony</i> with different types of commercial off-the-shelf microphone arrays and evaluate its performance under different settings. The results show that <i>Symphony</i> has a median localization error of 0.662&#x00A0;m.

스마트 스피커 사용자의 구매 유형에 따른 고객 만족과 지속사 용 의도에 관한 연구

Purpose - This study aimed to examine the influence of various factors on customer satisfaction and the continuance usage intention, based on the purchasing type of smart speaker users.&#x0D; Design/methodology/approach - Data was gathered through surveys, collecting responses from 180 smart speaker users in Korea. Structural equation modeling was utilized to analyze the data.&#x0D; Findings - Both perceived usefulness and perceived security were observed to have a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction across all user groups. Moreover, perceived ease of use and perceived versatility showed a significant positive effect on the continuance usage intention. Notably, for those who acquired the smart speakers for free, perceived usefulness had a positive impact on the continuance usage intention. Conversely, for those who made a paid purchase, perceived versatility played a significant role in driving customer satisfaction.&#x0D; Research implications or Originality - This research offers insights into the Korean smart speaker market, a unique environment where local competitors thrive in the absence of giants like Amazon and Google. It provides a nuanced view of customer reactions to these innovative devices. The study further distinguishes between high-involvement (paid purchase users) and low-involvement (free acquisition users) consumers, offering a more detailed understanding of user perspectives based on their acquisition mode.

Combining Smart Speaker and Smart Meter to Infer Your Residential Power Usage by Self-supervised Cross-modal Learning

Energy disaggregation is a key enabling technology for residential power usage monitoring, which benefits various applications such as carbon emission monitoring and human activity recognition. However, existing methods are difficult to balance the accuracy and usage burden (device costs, data labeling and prior knowledge). As the high penetration of smart speakers offers a low-cost way for sound-assisted residential power usage monitoring, this work aims to combine a smart speaker and a smart meter in a house to liberate the system from a high usage burden. However, it is still challenging to extract and leverage the consistent/complementary information (two types of relationships between acoustic and power features) from acoustic and power data without data labeling or prior knowledge. To this end, we design COMFORT, a cross-modality system for self-supervised power usage monitoring, including (i) a cross-modality learning component to automatically learn the consistent and complementary information, and (ii) a cross-modality inference component to utilize the consistent and complementary information. We implement and evaluate COMFORT with a self-collected dataset from six houses in 14 days, demonstrating that COMFORT finds the most appliances (98%), improves the appliance recognition performance in F-measure by at least 41.1%, and reduces the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of energy disaggregation by at least 30.4% over other alternative solutions.

Privacy against Real-Time Speech Emotion Detection via Acoustic Adversarial Evasion of Machine Learning

Smart speaker voice assistants (VAs) such as Amazon Echo and Google Home have been widely adopted due to their seamless integration with smart home devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. These VA services raise privacy concerns, especially due to their access to our speech. This work considers one such use case: the unaccountable and unauthorized surveillance of a user's emotion via speech emotion recognition (SER). This paper presents DARE-GP, a solution that creates additive noise to mask users' emotional information while preserving the transcription-relevant portions of their speech. DARE-GP does this by using a constrained genetic programming approach to learn the spectral frequency traits that depict target users' emotional content, and then generating a universal adversarial audio perturbation that provides this privacy protection. Unlike existing works, DARE-GP provides: a) real-time protection of previously unheard utterances, b) against previously unseen black-box SER classifiers, c) while protecting speech transcription, and d) does so in a realistic, acoustic environment. Further, this evasion is robust against defenses employed by a knowledgeable adversary. The evaluations in this work culminate with acoustic evaluations against two off-the-shelf commercial smart speakers using a small-form-factor (raspberry pi) integrated with a wake-word system to evaluate the efficacy of its real-world, real-time deployment.

Smart speakers and customer experience in service contexts

AbstractThe use of artificial intelligence‐based devices, such as smart speakers, is rising in frontline services, as such devices can perform several tasks for customers. However, little is known about customer responses to interactions with smart speakers that occur during service encounters. This research encompasses three studies intended to enhance our currently scarce knowledge of how customers respond to interactions with smart speakers during service encounters. Focusing on the hospitality industry, the first study shows that smart speakers improve evaluations of the hotels that use them in terms of customer ratings and positive affects. The second study demonstrates that automated social presence and psychological ownership feelings are key mechanisms that explain the development of valuable customer responses. The third study, which uses virtual reality, suggests that better actual behaviors are exhibited by people who appreciate the incorporation of smart speakers into services. Thus, the findings indicate that smart speakers improve service experiences, especially if used to carry out hedonic tasks usually performed by employees.

Domestication of Smart Speakers by Older Users

This paper examines the domestication of commercially available smart speakers like Amazon's Echo by older users and presents preliminary results of an ongoing qualitative study. So far, seven empirical cases have been analyzed with the aim of reconstructing older users' perspectives of and understanding how older users negotiate the appropriation, meaning and (non) use of smart speakers. The analysis of interviews shows that smart speakers can have multiple effects in lifeworlds of older adults, i.e. change/create new daily routines, values, and self-perceptions. Warm experts like family members play a crucial role in the appropriation processes.

IoT – Application and Architecture

Abstract––The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or teams of such objects) with sensors, process ability, software, and alternative technologies that connect and exchange information with alternative devices and systems over the net or alternative communications networks. net of things has been thought of a name as a result of devices don't ought to be connected to the general public net, they solely ought to be connected to a network and be severally available. the sphere has evolved because of the convergence of multiple technologies, as well as omnipresent computing, goods sensors, progressively powerful embedded systems, and machine learning. ancient fields of embedded systems, wireless device networks, management systems, automation (including home and building automation), severally and put together change the net of things. within the shopper market, IoT technology is most similar with merchandise relating the construct of the "smart home", as well as devices and appliances (such as lighting, thermostats, home security systems, cameras, and alternative home appliances) that support one or additional common ecosystems, and may be controlled via devices related to that system, like goodphones and smart speakers. IoT is additionally utilized in tending systems. Keywords––IoT, embedded system, computing, Internet

Domestication of Smart Speakers by Older Users

Domestication of Smart Speakers by Older Users

Seeing eye to eye: trustworthy embodiment for task-based conversational agents.

Smart speakers and conversational agents have been accepted into our homes for a number of tasks such as playing music, interfacing with the internet of things, and more recently, general chit-chat. However, they have been less readily accepted in our workplaces. This may be due to data privacy and security concerns that exist with commercially available smart speakers. However, one of the reasons for this may be that a smart speaker is simply too abstract and does not portray the social cues associated with a trustworthy work colleague. Here, we present an in-depth mixed method study, in which we investigate this question of embodiment in a serious task-based work scenario of a first responder team. We explore the concepts of trust, engagement, cognitive load, and human performance using a humanoid head style robot, a commercially available smart speaker, and a specially developed dialogue manager. Studying the effect of embodiment on trust, being a highly subjective and multi-faceted phenomena, is clearly challenging, and our results indicate that potentially, the robot, with its anthropomorphic facial features, expressions, and eye gaze, was trusted more than the smart speaker. In addition, we found that embodying a conversational agent helped increase task engagement and performance compared to the smart speaker. This study indicates that embodiment could potentially be useful for transitioning conversational agents into the workplace, and further in situ, "in the wild" experiments with domain workers could be conducted to confirm this.

Full-Digital Microphone Meta-Arrays for Consumer Electronics

Microphone arrays of various sizes and shapes are widely employed in consumer electronics devices such as smart speakers, speakerphones, smart TVs, smartphones, PCs, and headphones. Therefore, the possibility of creating arrays of arrays (i.e., meta-arrays), by easily connecting several smaller units, is particularly interesting: it allows for different shapes, with an increased number of microphones and improved performance, while keeping costs low. In this paper, full-digital microphone meta-arrays are presented: they are constituted by an arrangement of several triangular units, each featuring four digital Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) capsules connected in daisy-chain through the Automotive Audio Bus (A2B). Two prototypes have been built: a planar meta-array made of seven triangles (28 capsules) and a 3-dimensional meta-array with 14 triangles (56 capsules). Numerical simulations were carried out and compared against experimental measurements performed on the prototypes, showing an excellent matching. Finally, the 3-dimensional meta-array was compared with a spherical microphone array widely considered the state-of-the-art equipment in the last decade, demonstrating its potential in telecommunication applications.

Intelligent Personal Assistants in practice. Situational agencies and the multiple forms of cooperation without consensus

There are at least two perspectives concerning the role of digital and connected media systems in relation to individual agency. One suggests that individuals have a gain in agency while using digital devices and services while other approaches see that users become dependent on tech companies that use data flows to analyse and manipulate user behaviour. In our paper, we want to examine empirically how those two descriptions of agency work out and relate to each other. We use conversation analysis of face-to-interface interactions with smart speakers and intelligent personal assistants to examine the agency in front of the device and we rely on interviews with smart-speaker users to understand the users’ strategies to curtail the potentially unwanted effects of smart and connected devices and services. With reference to concepts of ‘co-operative work’ and ‘cooperation without consensus’ and a discussion of media and data practices, this paper elucidates how the two agencies of users and of device and service providers are intertwined and distributed.

Analyzing the Financial Risk Factors Impacting the Economic Benefits of the Consumer Electronic Goods Manufacturing Industry in India

Financial market instability and losses driven by changes in stock prices, currencies, interest rates, and other factors are the primary causes of economic risk. One of the risk types with the highest priority for every business is financial risk. The consumer electronics manufacturing sector’s focus on rising technology is driving important growth and includes manufacturers of smartwatches, stylish home products, and smart speakers. Risks can arise from the inability to meet functional requirements and business expectations throughout the life cycle, from original formation to final disposal, while supplying competitive electronic products. All of this highlights the necessity and potential of thorough study in the field of financial risk in economic growth. With the help of owners and managers of top electronic manufacturing industries in India, this study’s goal is to examine and evaluate several aspects of financial risk in economic benefits. The main factors of the financial risk covered under the study include liquidity risk, market risk, credit risk, and operational risk. Financial risks also arise from a combination of macroeconomic factors, including changing interest rates on the market and the potential for default by sizable businesses or industries. Financial stability is of the utmost importance to a commercial enterprise to maintain its position and status in the commercial environment. All of this demonstrates the value and need for rigorous research in the area of financial risk affecting the performance of the organization. This study intends to analyze several components of financial risk in consumer electronic goods manufacturers in India. Various aspects discussed in the study revolving around financial risk management are an important factor and demand the maximum attention of the organization.

Vocal accommodation to technology: the role of physical form

This study examines participants’ vocal accommodation toward text-to-speech (TTS) voices produced by three devices, varying in the extent to which they embody a human form. Thirty eight speakers shadowed words produced by a male and female TTS voice presented across three physical forms: an Amazon Echo smart speaker (least human-like), Nao robot (slightly more human-like), and a Furhat robot (more human-like). Ninety-six independent raters completed a separate AXB perceptual similarity assessment, which provides a holistic evaluation of accommodation. Results show convergence to the voices across all physical forms; convergence is even stronger toward the female TTS voice when presented with the Echo smart speaker form in the female TTS voice, consistent with participants' higher rated likability and lower creepiness of the Echo. We interpret our findings through the lens of communication accommodation theory (CAT), providing support for accounts of speech communication and human–computer interaction frameworks.

Investigating the Determinants of IoT Device Continuance Intentions: An Empirical Study of Smart Speakers Through the Lens of Expectation-Confirmation Theory

IoT device market has grown rapidly in recent years, with many researches have been done to investigate the IoT devices’ adoption factors. However, it is crucial to understand how to maintain the users’ continuance intention. This study, based on the post-acceptance model of the Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM), investigates the impact of early-stage users’ personal traits (personal innovativeness), social influence (normative and informational), and familiarity, on the social diffusion of IoT devices (in particular, smart speakers) measured by the continuation intention of smart speakers. We tested the research model and hypotheses using data from 364 smart speaker users, analyzed with partial least square technique using Smart-PLS. The data analysis results revealed that satisfaction has a very strong and positive impact on continuance intention. Perceived usefulness, confirmation, and personal innovativeness are positively associated with continuance intention via satisfaction. Social influence, represented by normative and informational social influence, showed a significant positive impact on continuance intention, a high degree of familiarity weakens the influence of normative social influence on continuance intention; however, familiarity has no impact on the relationship between informational social influence and continuance intention.

Trust TEE?: Exploring the Impact of Trusted Execution Environments on Smart Home Privacy Norms

IoT devices like smart cameras and speakers provide convenience but can collect sensitive information within private spaces. While research has investigated user perception of comfort with information flows originating from these types of devices, little focus has been given to the role of the sensing hardware in influencing these sentiments. Given the proliferation of trusted execution environments (TEEs) across commodity- and server-class devices, we surveyed 1049 American adults using the Contextual Integrity framework to understand how the inclusion of cloud-based TEEs in IoT ecosystems may influence comfort with data collection and use. We find that cloud-based TEEs significantly increase user comfort across information flows. These increases are more pronounced for devices manufactured by smaller companies and show that cloud-based TEEs can bridge the previously-documented gulfs in user trust between small and large companies. Sentiments around consent, bystander data, and indefinite retention are unaffected by the presence of TEEs, indicating the centrality of these norms.

Boundary Regulation Processes and Privacy Concerns With (Non-)Use of Voice-Based Assistants

An exemplar of human-machine communication, voice-based assistants (VBAs) embedded in smartphones and smart speakers simplify everyday tasks while collecting significant data about users and their environment. In recent years, devices using VBAs have continued to add new features and collect more data—in potentially invasive ways. Using Communication Privacy Management theory as a guiding framework, we analyze data from 11 focus groups with 65 US adult VBA users and nonusers. Findings highlight differences in attitudes and concerns toward VBAs broadly and provide insights into how attitudes are influenced by device features. We conclude with considerations for how to address boundary regulation challenges inherent in human-machine interactions.

Efficacy of Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri for Supporting Informed Prostate Cancer Screening Decisions for African-American Men.

Prostate cancer is the most prevalent non-skin cancer among all men, but African-Americans have morbidity and mortality at significantly higher rates than White men. To reduce this burden, authorities such as the American Cancer Society recommend that men make informed/shared screening decisions with a healthcare provider. Informed/shared screening decisions require that men have adequate prostate cancer knowledge. Virtual assistants are interactive communication technologies that have become popular for seeking health information, though information quality has been mixed. No prior research has investigated the quality of prostate cancer information disseminated by virtual assistants. The purpose of this study was to determine the response rates, accuracy, breadth, and credibility of three popular virtual assistants (Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri) for supporting informed/shared prostate cancer screening decisions for African-American men. Each virtual assistant was evaluated on a tablet, cell phone, and smart speaker using 12 frequently asked screening questions. Responses were rated dichotomously (i.e., yes/no), and analyses were conducted using SPSS. Alexa on a phone or tablet and Google Assistant on a smart speaker had the best overall performance based on a combination of response, accuracy, and credibility scores. All other assistants scored below 75% in one or more areas. Additionally, all virtual assistants lacked the breadth to support an informed/shared prostate cancer screening decision. African-American men may be especially disadvantaged by using virtual assistants for prostate cancer information because of the lack of emphasis on their greater disease risk, higher mortality rates, and appropriate ages at which they should begin screening conversations.