Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates & Advances the Human-Computer Relationship

Description

How interactive voice-based technology can tap into the automatic and powerful responses all speech - whether from human or machine - evokes. Interfaces that talk and listen are populating computers, cars, call centres, and even home appliances and toys, but voice interfaces invariably frustrate rather than help. In Wired for Speech, Clifford Nass and Scott Brave reveal how interactive voice technologies can readily and effectively tap into the automatic responses all speech - whether from human or machine - evokes. Wired for Speech demonstrates that people are voice-activated : we respond to voice technologies as we respond to actual people and behave as we would in any social situation. By leveraging this powerful finding, voice interfaces can truly emerge as the next frontier for efficient, user-friendly technology. Wired for Speech presents new theories and experiments and applies them to critical issues concerning how people interact with technology-based voices. It considers how people respond to a female voice in e-commerce (does stereotyping matter?), how a car's voice can promote safer driving (are happy cars better cars?) , whether synthetic voices have personality and emotion (is sounding like a person always good?), whether an automated call centre should apologise when it cannot understand a spoken request ( To Err is Interface; To Blame, Complex ), and much more. Nass and Brave's deep understanding of both social science and design, drawn from ten years of research at Nass's Stanford laboratory, produces results that often challenge conventional wisdom and common design practices. These insights will help designers and marketers build better interfaces, scientists construct better theories, and everyone gain better understandings of the future of the machines that speak with us.


Contents:

Acknowledgmentsxiii
A Note to Readersxix
1Wired for Speech: Activating the Human-Computer Relationship
2Gender of Voices: Making Interfaces Male or Female9
3Gender Stereotyping of Voices: Sex is Everywhere19
4Personality of Voices: Similars Attract33
5Personality of Voices and Words: Multiple Personalities are Dangerous47
6Accents, Race, and Ethnicity: It's Who You Are, Not What You Look Like61
7User Emotion and Voice Emotion: Talking Cars Should Know Their Drivers73
8Voice and Content Emotions: Why Voice Interfaces Need Acting Lessons85
9When Are Many Voices Better Than One? People Differentiate Synthetic Voices97
10Should Voice Interfaces Say "I"? Recorded and Synthetic Voice Interfaces' Claims to Humanity113
11Synthetic versus Recorded Voices and Faces: Don't Look the Look If You Can't Talk the Talk125
12Mixing Synthetic and Recorded Voices: When "Better" is Worse143
13Communications Contexts: The Effects of Type of Input on User Behaviors and Attitudes157
14Misrecognition: To Err Is Interface; To Blame, Complex171
15Conclusion: From Listening to and Talking at to Speaking with183
Notes