"Siri, is this you?": Understanding young children's interactions with voice input systems

ABSTRACT

The increasing pervasiveness of voice input systems in consumer devices (e.g., Apple's iOS Siri) creates the potential for young children to use features and access content that previously required the ability to read and write. However, whether and how young children use voice input systems and associated voice agents on mainstream devices has not been studied in detail. This paper reports preliminary findings from an online survey with parents about children's use of voice input systems and a content analysis of YouTube videos depicting child interaction with one popular voice input system. Our results reveal three primary ways in which children use voice input systems: exploration, to understand and relate to the voice agent and for fun; information seeking, related to fact-finding questions and information about their surrounding environment; and functional, as a means of operating the device. While our results are preliminary, they highlight a variety of opportunities and challenges voice input systems present for children and parents.

References

1. Anthony, L., Kim, Y., & Findlater, L. (2013). Analyzing user-generated youtube videos to understand touchscreen use by people with motor impairments. Proc of CHI, 1223--1232.
2. Blythe, M. & Cairns, P. (2009). Critical methods and user generated content: the iPhone on YouTube. Proc. CHI 2009, 1467--1476.
3. Callanan, M. A., & Oakes, L. M. (1992). Preschoolers' questions and parents' explanations: Causal thinking in everyday activity. Cognitive Development, 7(2), 213--233.
4. Chouinard, M. M., Harris, P. L., & Maratsos, M. P. (2007). Children's questions: A mechanism for cognitive development. Monographs of the SRCD, i-129.
5. Druin, A., Foss, E., Hatley, L., Golub, E., Guha, M. L., Fails, J., & Hutchinson, H. (2009, June). How children search the Internet with keyword interfaces. Proc of IDC, 89--96.
6. Foss, E., & Druin, A. (2014). Children's Internet Search: Using Roles to Understand Children's Search Behavior. Synthesis Lectures on information concepts, retrieval, and services, 6(2), 1--106.
7. Kahn, P. H., Gary, H. E., & Shen, S. (2013). Children's Social Relationships With Current and Near Future Robots. Child Development Perspectives, 7(1), 32--37.
8. Maier, A., Hönig, F., Steidl, S., Nöth, E., Horndasch, S., Sauerhöfer, E., Kratz, O., & Moll, G. (2011). An automatic version of a reading disorder test. ACM TSLP, 7(4), 17.
9. Meinedo, H., & Trancoso, I. (2011). Age and Gender Detection in the I-DASH Project, ACM TSLP, 7(4), 13.
10. Strauss, A., and Corbin, J., Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. SAGE Publications, 1998.
11. Vernon-Feagans, L., Hammer, C. S., Miccio, A., & Manlove, E. (2002). Early Language and Literacy Skills in Low-Income African American and Hispanic Children. In S. B. Neuman & D. K. Dickenson (Ed.), Handbook of Early Literacy Research (pp. 192--206). New York: Guilford Press.
12. Ward, W., Cole, R., Bolanos, D., Buchenroth-Martin, C., Svirsky, E., Van Vuuren, S., Weston, T., Zheng, J. & Becker, L. (2011). My science tutor: A conversational multimedia virtual tutor for elementary school science. ACM TSLP, 7(4), 18.

Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • Interaction paradigms