A Pilot Evaluation of a Conversational Listener for Conversational User Interfaces

Matthew Peter Aylett, Andrea Carmantini, Christoper J. Pidcock, Eric Nichols, Randy Gomez

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

Abstract

Current spoken conversational user interfaces (CUIs) are predominantly implemented using a sequential, utterance based, two-party, speak-wait/speak-wait approach. Human-human conversation 1) is not sequential, with overlap, interruption and back channels; 2) processes utterances before they are complete and 3) are often multi-party. As part of Honda Research Institute’s Haru project a light weight word spotting speech recognition system - A conversational listener - was implemented to allow very fast turn-taking in simple voice interaction conditions. In this paper, we present a pilot evaluation of the conversational listener in a script follower context (which allows a robot to act out a dialog with a user). We compare a disembodied version of the system with expressive synthesis to Alexa with and without fast turn-taking. Qualitative results indicate that users were sensitive to turn-taking delay and characterful speech synthesis.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCUI '23: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Print)9798400700149
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Jul 2023
Event5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces 2023 - Eindhoven, Netherlands
Duration: 19 Jul 202321 Jul 2023

Conference

Conference5th International Conference on Conversational User Interfaces 2023
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityEindhoven
Period19/07/2321/07/23

Keywords

  • conversational turn-taking
  • evaluation
  • human-machine voice interaction
  • social robots

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Software

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