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Voice Personal Assistants (VPA) have become a common household appliance. As one of the leading platforms for VPA technology, Amazon created Alexa and designed Amazon Kids for children to safely enjoy the rich functionalities of VPA and for…
Since being launched in 2014, Alexa, Amazon's versatile cloud-based voice service, is now active in over 100 million households worldwide. Alexa's user-friendly, personalized vocal experience offers customers a more natural way of…
Smart home devices have found their way through people's homes as well as hearts. One such smart device is Amazon Alexa. Amazon Alexa is a voice-controlled application that is rapidly gaining popularity. Alexa was primarily used for…
With the release of Amazon Alexa and the first Amazon Echo device, the company revolutionised the smart home. It allowed their users to communicate with, and control, their smart home ecosystem purely using voice commands. However, this…
Conversational systems use spoken language to interact with their users. Although conversational systems, such as Amazon Alexa, are becoming common and afford interesting functionalities, there is little known about the issues users of…
Growing up in an artificial intelligence-filled world, with Siri and Amazon Alexa often within arm's - or speech's - reach, could have significant impact on children. Conversational agents could influence how students anthropomorphize…
Alexa Skills are used for a variety of daily routines and purposes, but little research has focused on a key part of many people's daily lives: their pets. We present a systematic review categorizing the purposes of 88 Alexa Skills aimed at…
Online Digital Assistants, such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri are very popular and provide a range or services to their users, a key function is their ability to satisfy user information needs from the sources available to…
As voice-based Conversational Assistants (CAs), including Alexa, Siri, Google Home, have become commonly embedded in households, many children now routinely interact with Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. It is important to research…
We introduce Alexa Arena, a user-centric simulation platform for Embodied AI (EAI) research. Alexa Arena provides a variety of multi-room layouts and interactable objects, for the creation of human-robot interaction (HRI) missions. With…
Conversational agents (CAs) embodied in speakers or chatbots are becoming very popular in some countries, and despite their adult-centred design, they have become part of children's lives, generating a need for children-centric trustworthy…
Currently, adaptive voice applications supported by voice assistants (VA) are very popular (i.e., Alexa skills and Google Home Actions). Under this circumstance, how to design and evaluate these voice interactions well is very important. In…
Mental health resources available via websites and mobile apps provide support such as advice, journaling, and elements from cognitive behavioral therapy. The proliferation of spoken conversational agents, such as Alexa, Siri, and Google…
Conversational Artificial Intelligence (CAI) systems and Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPA), such as Alexa, Cortana, Google Home and Siri are becoming ubiquitous in our lives, including those of children, the implications of which is…
Wearable devices hold great potential for promoting children's health and well-being. However, research on kids' wearables is sparse and often focuses on their use in the context of parental surveillance. To gain insight into the current…
Many Internet of Things (IoT) devices have voice user interfaces (VUIs). One of the most popular VUIs is Amazon's Alexa, which supports more than 47,000 third-party applications ("skills"). We study how Alexa's integration of these skills…
Using online information discovery as a case study, in this position paper we discuss the need to design, develop, and deploy (conversational) agents that can -- non-intrusively -- guide children in their quest for online resources rather…
The use of games within the classroom is in constant growing, however, there are still demands for better solutions to problems such as reconciling leisure with class or the lack of attention of children. This work demonstrates…
Mobile health apps hold great potential for promoting children's health and wellbeing. However, there is limited understanding of how these technologies are currently designed to support children with their health concerns or wellness…
Virtual assistants such as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google Home, and Microsoft's Cortana, are becoming ubiquitous in our daily lives and successfully help users in various daily tasks, such as making phone calls or playing music. Yet,…