The design of speech-based automated mobile phone services using interface metaphors

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Interface metaphor is a widely used design technique for interactive computer systems. The advantages of using interface metaphors derive from their ability to promote active learning, which enables a user to transfer knowledge from a familiar real world domain, to an unfamiliar computing domain. Interface metaphor is not currently used for the design of automated phone services, and it was the aim of this thesis to examine whether interface metaphor could improve the usability of speech-activated automated mobile phone services. A human-centred design methodology was followed to generate, select, and develop potential metaphors, which were used to implement metaphor-based phone services. An experimental methodology was then used to compare the usability of the metaphor-based services with the usability of currently available number-based phone services. The first experiment examined the effect of three different interface metaphors on the usability of a mobile city guide service. Usability was measured as a range of performance and attitude measures, and was supplemented by telephone interview data. After three consecutive days of usage, participants both preferred, and performed better with, the service that was based on an office filing system metaphor. Experiment two was conducted over a six week period, and investigated the effect of users' individual differences, and the context of use, on the usability of both the office filing system metaphor-based service, and a non-metaphor service. The results showed that performance with the metaphor-based service was significantly better than performance with the non-metaphor service. The usability of the metaphor-based service was not significantly affected by users' individual characteristics and aptitudes, whereas the number-based service was, suggesting that metaphor-based services may be more usable for a wider range of potential users. Usability levels for both services were found to be consistent across both private and public locations of use, suggesting that speech-activated mobile phone services provide a flexible means of information access. Experiment three investigated the strategies used by participants when interacting with mobile phone services, specifically the visualisation strategy that was used by two thirds of the metaphor-based service participants in experiment two. In addition to the attitude and performance measures used for experiments one and two, face-to face interviews were conducted with participants. The results indicated that significantly more participants visualised the metaphor-based services relative to a non-metaphor service, and that visualisation of the service structure led to significant performance improvements. This thesis has demonstrated the usability benefits of interface metaphor as a design technique for speech-based mobile phone services. These benefits of metaphor appear to derive from their ability to provide a mental model of the phone service that can be visualised, and their ability to accommodate the individual differences of users

Argument Search with Voice Assistants

The need for finding persuasive arguments can arise in a variety of domains such as politics, finance, marketing or personal entertainment. In these domains, there is a demand to make decisions by oneself or to convince somebody about a specific topic. To obtain a conclusion, one has to search thoroughly different sources in literature and on the web to compare various arguments. Voice interfaces, in form of smartphone applications or smart speakers, present the user with natural conversations in a comfortable way to make search requests in contrast to a traditional search interface with keyboard and display. Benefits and obstacles of such a new interface are analyzed by conducting two studies. The first one consists of a survey for analyzing the target group with questions about situations, motivations, and possible demanding features. The latter one is a wizard-of-oz experiment to investigate possible queries on how a user formulates requests to such a novel system. The results indicate that a search interface with conversational abilities can build a helpful assistant, but to satisfy the demands of a broader audience some additional information retrieval and visualization features need to be implemented

Intervening to alleviate word-finding difficulties in children: case series data and a computational modelling foundation

We evaluated a simple computational model of productive vocabulary acquisition, applied to simulating two case studies of 7-year-old children with developmental word-finding difficulties across four core behavioural tasks. Developmental models were created, which captured the deficits of each child. In order to predict the effects of intervention, we exposed the computational models to simulated behavioural interventions of two types, targeting the improvement of either phonological or semantic knowledge. The model was then evaluated by testing the predictions from the simulations against the actual results from an intervention study carried out with the two children. For one child it was predicted that the phonological intervention would be effective, and the semantic intervention would not. This was borne out in the behavioural study. For the second child, the predictions were less clear and depended on the nature of simulated damage to the model. The behavioural study found an effect of semantic but not phonological intervention. Through an explicit computational simulation, we therefore employed intervention data to evaluate our theoretical understanding of the processes underlying acquisition of lexical items for production and how they may vary in children with developmental language difficulties

Interacting with Philosophy Through Natural Language Conversation

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

MONUMENTAL-IT: A \u27ROBOTIC-WIKI\u27 MONUMENT FOR EMBODIED INTERACTION IN THE INFORMATION WORLD

ABSTRACT Conventional monuments are concrete manifestations of memories without the capacity to reflect individual interpretations of history. In an increasingly digital society, however, there is a need for configurable monuments reflecting our contemporary, open and complex community. “Monumental-IT” reflects the dynamic and inclusive character of our time. Rather than static, Monumental-IT is a dynamic, robotic, intelligent environment reconfigured or “retuned” by citizens and by historical information accumulating on the World Wide Web. This information is periodically “coded,” altering the multi-sensorial physical-digital “Robotic-Wiki” components of Monumental-IT. Monumental-IT is designed to embody a new form of human-robotic interaction evolving from the monument typology. This research is a response to three questions: What is the monument for a world that is increasingly digital and \u27free\u27?; How can intelligent systems \u27creatively\u27 reconcile current conceptualizations of history with monument‐making?; and, What role can intelligent systems and Human Centered Computing (HCC) play in creating significant, meaningful, physical, urban places for collective memories?. This research involves designing, prototyping, and empirically evaluating Monumental-IT. The research employs a mixed-methodological research design which includes: quasi-experimental design, usability, heuristic evaluations, and cognitive walkthroughs as its research methods; and multivariate statistics to validate significance and usability with real users and experts in the domain fields of \u27architectural-robotics\u27 and human factors psychology. Results strongly suggest that the four distinct configurations of the robotic, multi-sensorial Monumental-IT evoke four distinct emotions in users. As well, users interacting with the Monumental-IT prototype evaluate the design as strongly aiding their recollection of human events (here, the history of slavery in the testbed, Charleston, South Carolina, USA). Finally, users overwhelmingly evaluated the Monumental-IT design to be more apt for our increasingly digital society than conventional monument design. Key contributions are: the identification of metrics for evaluating complex digital-physical environments; the advancement of human-robotic interaction via environmental-scaled robotics and multi-sensorial features (colors, sounds and motions); and, the conceptualization of the monument as a cybernetic system

Spirit: motivational object

The objective of this project is to find a way to process information in a more personal experience, considering the era of the Internet and the Internet of Things (IoT) and the connection between a digital and real-world through motivational messages. It is focused on an object that will motivate people with their daily tasks, re-framing their state of mind on a shareable self-intrinsic motivation by related people and new relationships. The project relies in the relation between objects and cued memories — this can be an elucidating trade-off for encountering and re-evaluating personal disposition towards an environment, objects, and their related memories. Since this evaluative process happens in the mind, the project aims to develop a method showing it in a device. The project consists of an object that aims to improve adherence by giving reminders and helping people or patients to keep track of their mental state and most important daily motivations, by exchanging messages between a restrictive group of people. This can affect the Mental State for good progress to be healthier. The disproportional information of IoT in comparison with what it was needed in the real world and having an app that could have a richer emotional state and life satisfaction to people. Overall the objective of this object is to develop a good emotional investment in social media having a source of deeper connection if used. Social media have a crucial role in the way to connect people far and close to share goals, visions, and influences. With this object, Artificial Intelligence and a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) bot could have, in the future, a role in the advances of the computational capacity of the data collection and machine learning. Both can have a great impact on people's lives and can influence areas like psychology and psychiatry being a tool to clarify patients' state of mind for motivational messaging or be a mediator to teach some emotional regulation skills on investment on a social purpose.O objetivo deste projeto é processar informações de forma mais pessoal na era da Internet e Internet of Things (IoT) entre um mundo digital e mundo real com uma mensagem motivacional. Tem por objetivo um objeto que irá intervir para motivar as pessoas com suas tarefas diárias, reformulando estado de espírito em uma motivação intrínseca compartilhável por pessoas relacionadas e novos relacionamentos que possam surgir. O projeto está na relação entre objetos e memórias lembradas - isso pode estar elucidando o trade-off para encontrar e reavaliar nossa disposição em direção a um ambiente, objetos e suas memórias relacionadas. Dado que este processo de avaliação ocorre na mente, o projeto tem por objetivo desenvolver um método para mostrá-lo no dispositivo. O projeto consiste em um objeto que visa melhorar a adesão, dando tanto mensagens e sinais de cor e ajudando pessoas ou pacientes a acompanhar seu estado mental e motivações importantes diariamente, trocando mensagens entre um grupo restritivo de pessoas. Isso pode afetar o estado mental para que um bom progresso para que seja mais saudável. A informação da Internet em comparação com o que precisamos no mundo real é enorme e ter um objeto que pode dispor um estado emocional mais rico e com satisfação de vida para as pessoas sem haver grande relação tecnológica é importante. Em geral, o uso deste objeto irá desenvolver um bom investimento emocional em uma rede social com uma fonte de conexão mais profunda, se usada. Os média sociais têm um papel crucial na maneira de conectar as pessoas de longe e compartilhar objetivos, visões e influências. Com a utilização do objeto num Future Work através de um bot a terapia comportamental cognitiva pode ter um papel nos avanços na capacidade computacional da coleta de dados e aprendizado de máquina. Ambos podem ter um grande impacto na vida das pessoas e podem influenciar áreas como psicologia e psiquiatria, sendo uma ferramenta para esclarecer o estado mental dos pacientes por mensagens motivacionais ou para ser um mediador ensinando algumas habilidades de regulação emocional no investimento de médias sociais