Making Everyday Things Talk: Speculative Conversations into the Future of Voice Interfaces at Home

Anuradha Reddy; A. Baki Kocaballi; Iohanna Nicenboim; Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard; Maria Luce Lupetti; Cayla Key; Chris Speed; Dan Lockton; Elisa Giaccardi; Francisca Grommé; Holly Robbins; Namrata Primlani; Paulina Yurman; Shanti Sumartojo; Thao Phan; Viktor Bedö; Yolande Strengers

doi:10.1145/3411763.3450390

Making Everyday Things Talk: Speculative Conversations into the Future of Voice Interfaces at Home

Anuradha Reddy^*, A. Baki Kocaballi, Iohanna Nicenboim, Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard, Maria Luce Lupetti, Cayla Key, Chris Speed, Dan Lockton, Elisa Giaccardi, Francisca Grommé, Holly Robbins, Namrata Primlani, Paulina Yurman, Shanti Sumartojo, Thao Phan, Viktor Bedö, Yolande Strengers

^*Corresponding author for this work

Design Department

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

182 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

What if things had a voice? What if we could talk directly to things instead of using a mediating voice interface such as an Alexa or a Google Assistant? In this paper, we share our insights from talking to a pair of boots, a tampon, a perfume bottle, and toilet paper among other everyday things to explore their conversational capabilities. We conducted Thing Interviews using a more-than-human design approach to discover a thing’s perspectives, worldviews and its relations to other humans and nonhumans. Based on our analysis of the speculative conversations, we identified some themes characterizing the emergent qualities of people’s relationships with everyday things. We believe the themes presented in the paper may inspire future research on designing everyday things with conversational capabilities at home.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI EA '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Subtitle of host publication	May 8-13, 2021, Online Virtual Conference (originally Yokohama, Japan)
Editors	Yoshifumi Kitamura, Aaron Quigley, Katherine Isbister, Takeo Igarashi
Place of Publication	New York, US
Publisher	ACM
Pages	1-16
Number of pages	16
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450380959
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3450390
Publication status	Published - 8 May 2021
Event	ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021) - Online, Yokohama, Japan Duration: 8 May 2021 → 13 May 2021 https://chi2021.acm.org/ https://chi2021.acm.org

Publication series

Name	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Conference

Conference	ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021)
Abbreviated title	CHI 2021
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Yokohama
Period	8/05/21 → 13/05/21
Internet address	https://chi2021.acm.org/ https://chi2021.acm.org

Keywords

AI
Conversational Agents
IoT
More-than-human Design
Thing Interviews
Voice Interfaces

Access to Document

10.1145/3411763.3450390

chi21n-sub5911-i7Accepted author manuscript, 3.89 MB

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Reddy, A., Kocaballi, A. B., Nicenboim, I., Søndergaard, M. L. J., Lupetti, M. L., Key, C., Speed, C., Lockton, D., Giaccardi, E., Grommé, F., Robbins, H., Primlani, N., Yurman, P., Sumartojo, S., Phan, T., Bedö, V., & Strengers, Y. (2021). Making Everyday Things Talk: Speculative Conversations into the Future of Voice Interfaces at Home. In Y. Kitamura, A. Quigley, K. Isbister, & T. Igarashi (Eds.), CHI EA '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: May 8-13, 2021, Online Virtual Conference (originally Yokohama, Japan) (pp. 1-16). Article 23 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3450390

Reddy, Anuradha ; Kocaballi, A. Baki ; Nicenboim, Iohanna et al. / Making Everyday Things Talk : Speculative Conversations into the Future of Voice Interfaces at Home. CHI EA '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: May 8-13, 2021, Online Virtual Conference (originally Yokohama, Japan). editor / Yoshifumi Kitamura ; Aaron Quigley ; Katherine Isbister ; Takeo Igarashi . New York, US : ACM, 2021. pp. 1-16 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

@inproceedings{44addd47d5e542a9b3b2fbe2fad4cf20,

title = "Making Everyday Things Talk: Speculative Conversations into the Future of Voice Interfaces at Home",

abstract = "What if things had a voice? What if we could talk directly to things instead of using a mediating voice interface such as an Alexa or a Google Assistant? In this paper, we share our insights from talking to a pair of boots, a tampon, a perfume bottle, and toilet paper among other everyday things to explore their conversational capabilities. We conducted Thing Interviews using a more-than-human design approach to discover a thing{\textquoteright}s perspectives, worldviews and its relations to other humans and nonhumans. Based on our analysis of the speculative conversations, we identified some themes characterizing the emergent qualities of people{\textquoteright}s relationships with everyday things. We believe the themes presented in the paper may inspire future research on designing everyday things with conversational capabilities at home.",

keywords = "AI, Conversational Agents, IoT, More-than-human Design, Thing Interviews, Voice Interfaces",

author = "Anuradha Reddy and Kocaballi, {A. Baki} and Iohanna Nicenboim and S{\o}ndergaard, {Marie Louise Juul} and Lupetti, {Maria Luce} and Cayla Key and Chris Speed and Dan Lockton and Elisa Giaccardi and Francisca Gromm{\'e} and Holly Robbins and Namrata Primlani and Paulina Yurman and Shanti Sumartojo and Thao Phan and Viktor Bed{\"o} and Yolande Strengers",

year = "2021",

month = may,

day = "8",

doi = "10.1145/3411763.3450390",

language = "English",

series = "Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings",

publisher = "ACM",

pages = "1--16",

editor = "Yoshifumi Kitamura and Aaron Quigley and Katherine Isbister and {Igarashi }, {Takeo }",

booktitle = "CHI EA '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

address = "United States",

note = "ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021), CHI 2021 ; Conference date: 08-05-2021 Through 13-05-2021",

url = "https://chi2021.acm.org/, https://chi2021.acm.org",

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Reddy, A, Kocaballi, AB, Nicenboim, I, Søndergaard, MLJ, Lupetti, ML, Key, C, Speed, C, Lockton, D, Giaccardi, E, Grommé, F, Robbins, H, Primlani, N, Yurman, P, Sumartojo, S, Phan, T, Bedö, V & Strengers, Y 2021, Making Everyday Things Talk: Speculative Conversations into the Future of Voice Interfaces at Home. in Y Kitamura, A Quigley, K Isbister & T Igarashi (eds), CHI EA '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: May 8-13, 2021, Online Virtual Conference (originally Yokohama, Japan)., 23, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, ACM, New York, US, pp. 1-16, ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021), Yokohama, Japan, 8/05/21. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411763.3450390

Making Everyday Things Talk: Speculative Conversations into the Future of Voice Interfaces at Home. / Reddy, Anuradha; Kocaballi, A. Baki; Nicenboim, Iohanna et al.
CHI EA '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: May 8-13, 2021, Online Virtual Conference (originally Yokohama, Japan). ed. / Yoshifumi Kitamura; Aaron Quigley; Katherine Isbister; Takeo Igarashi . New York, US: ACM, 2021. p. 1-16 23 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AU - Speed, Chris

AU - Lockton, Dan

AU - Giaccardi, Elisa

AU - Grommé, Francisca

AU - Robbins, Holly

AU - Primlani, Namrata

AU - Yurman, Paulina

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AU - Bedö, Viktor

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AB - What if things had a voice? What if we could talk directly to things instead of using a mediating voice interface such as an Alexa or a Google Assistant? In this paper, we share our insights from talking to a pair of boots, a tampon, a perfume bottle, and toilet paper among other everyday things to explore their conversational capabilities. We conducted Thing Interviews using a more-than-human design approach to discover a thing’s perspectives, worldviews and its relations to other humans and nonhumans. Based on our analysis of the speculative conversations, we identified some themes characterizing the emergent qualities of people’s relationships with everyday things. We believe the themes presented in the paper may inspire future research on designing everyday things with conversational capabilities at home.

KW - AI

KW - Conversational Agents

KW - IoT

KW - More-than-human Design

KW - Thing Interviews

KW - Voice Interfaces

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A2 - Igarashi , Takeo

PB - ACM

CY - New York, US

Y2 - 8 May 2021 through 13 May 2021

ER -

Reddy A, Kocaballi AB, Nicenboim I, Søndergaard MLJ, Lupetti ML, Key C et al. Making Everyday Things Talk: Speculative Conversations into the Future of Voice Interfaces at Home. In Kitamura Y, Quigley A, Isbister K, Igarashi T, editors, CHI EA '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: May 8-13, 2021, Online Virtual Conference (originally Yokohama, Japan). New York, US: ACM. 2021. p. 1-16. 23. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). Epub 2021 May 8. doi: 10.1145/3411763.3450390

Making Everyday Things Talk: Speculative Conversations into the Future of Voice Interfaces at Home

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Keywords

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