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

正在进行的新冠肺炎大流行导致该项目严重延误。尽管如此，我们还是开发了三个初步的老年人文本到语音(TTS)系统，使用机器学习的三个录制的老年人声音。然后我们创建了一个具有讲故事活动的初步语音助手(VA)。所有的设计研究都完成了。一项针对老年人的在线调查为退伍军人事务部的一项基于故事的活动收集了想法。我们在系统设计中使用了最顶尖的想法。对数据收集进行了三次系统审查；发表了两次。一项在线研究评估了三个TTS与其他TTS的质量。这导致了一个侧面的项目(卡哇伊声乐)，并证实了TTS的“年龄”。一项面对面的绘画研究进行了年轻人和老年人的研究。这也证实了TTS的“老龄化”。这两项研究都提出了TTS的“机械”性质的问题。对TTS(老年女性)最好的讲故事系统进行了可用性研究；然而，没有发现年龄歧视的结果，虽然年轻、专业的TTS被认为是最适合讲故事的，但年长的成年人TTS被认为最适合讲故事。最后，对另一种活动--正念冥想进行了面对面的研究，但更倾向于讲故事的活动。完成了一篇硕士论文，两篇学士论文和两个学生交换项目。在人机交互领域的顶级国际同行审查会议(ACM、CHI和DIS)上发表了三篇短论文。

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).