When the Tissue Box Says “Bless You!”: Using Speech to Build Socially Interactive Objects

Haiyan Jia, Mu Wu, Eunhwa Jung, S. Shyam Sundar, Alice Shapiro

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

From the Internet of Things to ubiquitous computing, smart objects are everywhere and have become a significant part of the information supply chain. However, these objects remain invisible to end-users mostly because they do not interact with them. Our project is devoted to brainstorming different design possibilities for building interfaces for these smart objects. This paper explores one such possibility—outfitting the object with a speech interface. Study participants (N = 63) witnessed the experimenter sneezing, followed by a “Bless You” from either a nearby tissue box, a robot in the room, or a person in the room. Surprisingly, users found the speaking tissue box to be as social and agentic as a humanoid robot and a human. We also found significant moderating effects of users’ preference for consistency, parasocial tendency and power usage. Participants who scored high on these traits were more likely to regard the study object as intelligent and likeable. Users also tended to show the same non-verbal reactions to the tissue box as they would to a human or a robot.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI EA 2013 - Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publicationChanging Perspectives
EditorsMichel Beaudouin-Lafon, Patrick Baudisch, Wendy E. Mackay
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Pages1635-1640
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781450318990
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 27 2013
Event31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems:, CHI EA 2013 - Paris, France
Duration: Apr 27 2013May 2 2013

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
Volume2013-April

Other

Other31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems:, CHI EA 2013
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityParis
Period4/27/135/2/13

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Software
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

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