Analyzing the Use of Camera Glasses in the Wild

Camera glasses enable people to capture point-of-view videos using a common accessory, hands-free. In this paper, we investigate how, when, and why people used one such product: Spectacles. We conducted 39 semi-structured interviews and surveys with 191 owners of Spectacles. We found that the form factor elicits sustained usage behaviors, and opens opportunities for new use-cases and types of content captured. We provide a usage typology, and highlight societal and individual factors that influence the classification of behaviors.Comment: In Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019). ACM, New York, NY, US

Alexa as an Active Listener: How Backchanneling Can Elicit Self-Disclosure and Promote User Experience

Active listening is a well-known skill applied in human communication to build intimacy and elicit self-disclosure to support a wide variety of cooperative tasks. When applied to conversational UIs, active listening from machines can also elicit greater self-disclosure by signaling to the users that they are being heard, which can have positive outcomes. However, it takes considerable engineering effort and training to embed active listening skills in machines at scale, given the need to personalize active-listening cues to individual users and their specific utterances. A more generic solution is needed given the increasing use of conversational agents, especially by the growing number of socially isolated individuals. With this in mind, we developed an Amazon Alexa skill that provides privacy-preserving and pseudo-random backchanneling to indicate active listening. User study (N = 40) data show that backchanneling improves perceived degree of active listening by smart speakers. It also results in more emotional disclosure, with participants using more positive words. Perception of smart speakers as active listeners is positively associated with perceived emotional support. Interview data corroborate the feasibility of using smart speakers to provide emotional support. These findings have important implications for smart speaker interaction design in several domains of cooperative work and social computing.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACM HCI). The paper will be presented in CSCW 2022 (https://cscw.acm.org/2022

Understanding Circumstances for Desirable Proactive Behaviour of Voice Assistants: The Proactivity Dilemma

The next major evolutionary stage for voice assistants will be their capability to initiate interactions by themselves. However, to design proactive interactions, it is crucial to understand whether and when this behaviour is considered useful and how desirable it is perceived for different social contexts or ongoing activities. To investigate people's perspectives on proactivity and appropriate circumstances for it, we designed a set of storyboards depicting a variety of proactive actions in everyday situations and social settings and presented them to 15 participants in interactive interviews. Our findings suggest that, although many participants see benefits in agent proactivity, such as for urgent or critical issues, there are concerns about interference with social activities in multi-party settings, potential loss of agency, and intrusiveness. We discuss our implications for designing voice assistants with desirable proactive features

How WEIRD is Usable Privacy and Security Research? (Extended Version)

In human factor fields such as human-computer interaction (HCI) and psychology, researchers have been concerned that participants mostly come from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) countries. This WEIRD skew may hinder understanding of diverse populations and their cultural differences. The usable privacy and security (UPS) field has inherited many research methodologies from research on human factor fields. We conducted a literature review to understand the extent to which participant samples in UPS papers were from WEIRD countries and the characteristics of the methodologies and research topics in each user study recruiting Western or non-Western participants. We found that the skew toward WEIRD countries in UPS is greater than that in HCI. Geographic and linguistic barriers in the study methods and recruitment methods may cause researchers to conduct user studies locally. In addition, many papers did not report participant demographics, which could hinder the replication of the reported studies, leading to low reproducibility. To improve geographic diversity, we provide the suggestions including facilitate replication studies, address geographic and linguistic issues of study/recruitment methods, and facilitate research on the topics for non-WEIRD populations.Comment: This paper is the extended version of the paper presented at USENIX SECURITY 202

Aceptacion de la publicidad a través de altavoces inteligentes

Purpose: The influence of technology on marketing communications is rising in both applications and value created. Artificial intelligence (AI) and, as a result, smart speakers are benefiting both brands and customers at many levels. In particular, AI opens up the possibility to establish human-like dialogs with customers and to advertise brands in a new and engaging way. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to understand why and how consumers would accept receiving advertising (ad) via AI-enabled devices such as smart speakers. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 326 individuals participated in a study that explored the factors influencing ad acceptance in smart devices. A partial least squares-structural equation model technique was used to validate the results. Findings: The findings show that customer acceptance of ads via smart assistants is influenced by smart assistant usefulness and hedonic motivations. However, privacy risk moderates the relationship between smart speaker ease of use and smart speaker usefulness. Originality/value: This paper explores the main drivers of ad acceptance via smart speakers and goes beyond the existing knowledge of smart speaker acceptance to further explore how this can become an important channel for brands to communicate.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Useful shortcuts: Using design heuristics for consent and permission in smart home devices

Prior research in smart home privacy highlights significant issues with how users understand, permit, and consent to data use. Some of the underlying issues point to unclear data protection regulations, lack of design principles, and dark patterns. In this paper, we explore heuristics (also called “mental shortcuts” or “rules of thumb”) as a means to address security and privacy design challenges in smart homes. First, we systematically analyze an existing body of data on smart homes to derive a set of heuristics for the design of consent and permission. Second, we apply these heuristics in four participatory co-design workshops (n = 14) and report on their use. Third, we analyze the use of the heuristics through thematic analysis highlighting heuristic application, purpose, and effectiveness in successful and unsuccessful design outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of the wider challenges, opportunities, and future work for improving design practices for consent in smart homes

Neither friend, nor device: the role of personal epistemologies in communication with smart speakers

With smart speakers diffusing into society, artificial intelligence is moving from the imaginative reservoirs of dystopian storytelling into vernacular living. How do users perceive communication with it? Are Alexa and Siri considered simple devices, sentient assistants, or even artificial friends? Based on nine qualitative interviews with former smart speaker users in Germany, this study analyzes smart speaker use and related personal epistemologies within a media repertoire perspective. By presenting six interrelated action-guiding principles explaining smart speaker use and people’s ambivalent sensemaking, we argue that smart speakers appear neither as friends nor as mere neutral devices to their users. The identified principles explain the peripheral role of smart speakers within media repertoires as handy but suspicious gimmicks. For future smart speaker adoption, whether smart assistants are interpreted as simple-minded, exploitative gimmicks or relevant, reliable, and trustworthy companions will be crucial