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<h5 class="bloc-title">Call for Papers, Extended Deadline!<br>
</h5>
<h1>"Towards Omnipresent and Smart Speech Assistants"</h1>
<h2 class="bloc-title">About this Research Topic<br>
</h2>
The functionality of digital voice assistant systems is constantly
growing. The attractiveness of such devices is based on their ease
of use as they allow to conduct online searches and orders as well
as smart home services by simply calling up the device.<br>
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<p>However, the implications of voice-based interaction are not
always clear to the user, especially since today's voice
assistants are sometimes only better remote controls. In future,
however, they should not only process simple commands, but also
enable a natural and smooth interaction and be omnipresent. In
addition to an improved speech recognition, this will require
enhanced speech understanding and more intelligent dialog
guidance. <br>
<br>
While state-of-the art systems are mainly conceptualized for
young adults and middle-aged people, future systems should adapt
to the user in order to meet the needs of different (vulnerable)
user groups ranging from young children to the elderly. This
will be accompanied by efforts to make systems more
understandable and users more sophisticated. Consequently, legal
aspects resulting from the spread of voice assistants and the
stricter data protection regulations are important.<br>
<br>
The goal of this Research Topic is to present the latest
advances - both from academia and industry - in the area of
voice assistants. We aim at bringing together researchers from
the disciplines of human-computer interaction, artificial
intelligence, and human factors in order to promote
interdisciplinary collaborations and cross-fertilization of
ideas. More specifically, we are interested in exploring the
current landscape and future directions for the emerging topic
of voice assistants.<br>
<br>
This Research Topic provides an opportunity for scholars and
researchers to contribute original research articles as well as
review articles that will stimulate the continuing effort on the
development of future voice assistants.<br>
<br>
In addition to methodological and theoretical contributions, we
welcome practical applications at the intersection of artificial
intelligence, human-computer interaction, and human factors.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the
following:<br>
<br>
• Applications of voice assistants<br>
• Improvements in dialog handling and dialog management<br>
• Intelligent feedback and turn-taking technologies<br>
• “In the wild” studies of voice assistants<br>
• ubiquitous computing and omnipresent voice assistants <br>
• Reliability of modern voice assistants<br>
• Multi-party interactions – Current state and future directions<br>
• Aspects of perceived quality and user experience<br>
• Coping with uncertainty of voice understanding<br>
• Incorporation of additional speech-based user characteristics<br>
• Techniques enabling (automatic) learning<br>
• Explainable AI – Explain Explainable AI<br>
• Security issues – misbehavior, breaches and possible solutions<br>
• Ethical issues and persuasive interfaces <br>
• Privacy issues and their implications <br>
• Methods to measure and improve acceptance of speech assistants
</p>
<strong>Keywords</strong>:
smart assistant, dialog, voice user interface, user experience,
conversational interfaces <br>
<p> <b>Important Note</b>: All contributions to this Research
Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to
which they are submitted, as defined in their mission
statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an
out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at
any stage of peer review. <br>
</p>
<p><b>extended Manuscript Deadline</b>: 30.09.2021</p>
<p class="moz-quote-pre" wrap=""><b>Topic Editors: </b><br>
Dr. Ingo Siegert, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg,
Magdeburg,
Germany <br>
Dr. Stefan Hillmann, Quality and Usability Lab, Institute for
Software
Technology and Theoretical Computer Science, Faculty of
Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science, Technical University Berlin,
Berlin,
Germany
<br>
Dr. Benjamin Weiss, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea <br>
Dr. Jessica Martina Szczuka, University of Duisburg-Essen,
Duisburg,
Germany <br>
Dr. Alexey Karpov, St. Petersburg Institute for Informatics and
Automation of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPIIRAS), St.
Petersburg,
Russia</p>
<p class="moz-quote-pre" wrap=""><b>Visit the homepage for this
Research Topic for a full description:</b> <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/16346">https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/16346</a>
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