Research on sound agents for social implementation of HAI

Abstract

The use of robotic agents (RAs) for customer service and sales promotions, such as advertisements, has been increasing in commercial facilities, etc. It has been reported that RAs can influence the purchasing behavior of passersby through their appearance and interactive behavior. On the other hand, it has been suggested that RAs may fail in sales promotions or alienate some passersby because too much attention is paid to their bodies in some situations where RAs are used. Through field experiments in which the presence or absence of a product recommendation agent's body was used as a comparison condition, we have confirmed that a sound-only state without a product recommendation agent's body may be more effective in recommending products. In this paper, we discuss the social implementation of product recommendation by sound agents without bodies.