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

by Nass, Clifford; Brave, Scott

• ISBN13: 9780262640657
• ISBN10: 0262640651
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-02-23
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

Winner, 2007 International Communication Association Outstanding Book Award for 2005-2006. Interfaces that talk and listen are populating computers, cars, call centers, 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 Speechdemonstrates 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 Speechpresents 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 center should apologize 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.

Author Biography

Clifford Nass is Professor, Department of Communication, and Codirector, Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory, at Stanford University. He is the author of The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places.

Scott Brave is Chief Technology Officer at Baynote, Inc.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
A Note to Readers	p. xix
Wired for Speech: Activating the Human-Computer Relationship	p. 1
Gender of Voices: Making Interfaces Male or Female	p. 9
Gender Stereotyping of Voices: Sex is Everywhere	p. 19
Personality of Voices: Similars Attract	p. 33
Personality of Voices and Words: Multiple Personalities are Dangerous	p. 47
Accents, Race, and Ethnicity: It's Who You Are, Not What You Look Like	p. 61
User Emotion and Voice Emotion: Talking Cars Should Know Their Drivers	p. 73
Voice and Content Emotions: Why Voice Interfaces Need Acting Lessons	p. 85
When Are Many Voices Better Than One? People Differentiate Synthetic Voices	p. 97
Should Voice Interfaces Say "I"? Recorded and Synthetic Voice Interfaces' Claims to Humanity	p. 113
Synthetic versus Recorded Voices and Faces: Don't Look the Look If You Can't Talk the Talk	p. 125
Mixing Synthetic and Recorded Voices: When "Better" is Worse	p. 143
Communications Contexts: The Effects of Type of Input on User Behaviors and Attitudes	p. 157
Misrecognition: To Err Is Interface To Blame, Complex	p. 171
Conclusion: From Listening to and Talking at to Speaking with	p. 183
Notes	p. 185
Author Index	p. 271
Subject Index	p. 285
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