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Social robots and ECAs for accessing smart environments services

Published:26 May 2010Publication History

ABSTRACT

As far as interaction is concerned Ambient Intelligence (AmI) research emphasizes the need of natural and friendly interfaces for accessing services provided by the environment. In this paper we present the result of an experimental study aiming at understanding whether Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) and Social Robots may improve the naturalness and effectiveness of interaction by playing different roles when acting as interface between users and smart environment services. Results obtained so far show that ECAs seem to have a better evaluation than robots for information related tasks. On the other side, Social Robots are preferred for welcoming people and for guiding them in the smart environment, due to their possibility to move and to the perceived sense of presence. Moreover, the robot seems to elicit a more positive evaluation in terms of user experience.

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  1. Social robots and ECAs for accessing smart environments services

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM Other conferences
      AVI '10: Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces
      May 2010
      427 pages
      ISBN:9781450300766
      DOI:10.1145/1842993
      • Editor:
      • Giuseppe Santucci

      Copyright © 2010 ACM

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      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      • Published: 26 May 2010

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