Voice Against Bias: Exploring Voice Assistants as a Method of Countering Implicit Bias

持续的COVID-19疫情导致该项目严重延误。即便如此，我们还是使用机器学习技术，使用三种记录的老年人声音开发了三种初步的老年人文本到语音（TTS）系统。然后，我们创建了一个初步的语音助手（VA）与讲故事的活动。所有的设计研究已经完成。对老年人进行了一项在线调查，以收集与VA进行的基于故事的活动的想法。我们在系统设计中采用了最好的想法。对数据收集进行了三次系统性审查;发表了两次。进行了一项在线研究，以评估三个TTS的质量相比，其他TTS的。这导致了一个副项目（卡哇伊声乐），并确认了TTS的“年龄”。一个面对面的绘画研究进行了与年轻人和老年人。这也证实了TTS的“老化”。这两项研究都提出了TTS的“机械”性质的问题。一个可用性研究的讲故事的系统与最好的TTS（老女人）进行，但是，没有发现年龄歧视的结果，而年轻的，专业的TTS的首选，老年人的TTS的被认为是最适合讲故事。最后，我们进行了一项关于正念冥想的面对面研究，但最好是讲故事活动。完成了一份硕士论文、两份学士论文和两个学生交流项目。在人机交互领域的顶级国际同行评审会议（ACM CHI和DIS）上发表了三篇简短的论文。

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic created severe delays for this project. Even so, we developed three preliminary older adult text-to-speech (TTS) systems using the three recorded older adult voices using machine learning. We then created a preliminary voice assistant (VA) with a storytelling activity.All design studies were completed. An online survey was conducted with older adults to gather ideas for a story-based activity with the VA. We used the top ideas for the system design. Three systematic reviews on data collection were conducted; two were published. An online study was conducted to assess the qualities of the three TTS's in comparison to other TTS's. This led to one side project (kawaii vocalics) and confirmed the "agedness" of the TTS's. A face-to-face drawing study was conducted with younger and older adults. This also confirmed the "agedness" of the TTS's. Both studies raised the problem of the "mechanical" nature of the TTS's. A usability study of the storytelling system with the best TTS (old woman) was conducted; however, no results for ageism were found, and while the younger, professional TTS's were preferred, the older adult TTS's were deemed most suitable for storytelling. Finally, a face-to-face study on an alternative activity, mindfulness meditation, was conducted; however, the storytelling activity was preferred.One master's thesis, two bachelor's theses, and two student exchange projects were completed. Three short papers were published at the top international peer-reviewed conferences in the field of human-computer interaction (ACM CHI and DIS).