Intelligent Robotics Laboratory (Hiroshi Ishiguro's Laboratory), Department of Systems Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives (OTRI), Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
PLoS One. 2022 Dec 28;17(12):e0278852. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278852. eCollection 2022.
With fast and reliable international transportation, more people with different language backgrounds can interact now. As a result, the need for communicative agents fluent in several languages to assist those people is highlighted. The high cost of hiring human attendants fluent in several languages makes using social robots a more affordable alternative in international gatherings. A social robot capable of presenting a piece of information in more than one language at the same time to its audience is the goal of this line of study. However, the negative effect of background noise on speech comprehension in humans is well-established. Hence, presenting a piece of information in two different languages at the same time by the robot creates an adverse listening condition for both individuals listening to the speech of such a bilingual robot. In this study, we investigated whether manipulating the pitch and gender of the robot's voice could affect human subjects' memory of the presented information in the presence of background noise. The results indicate that the pitch and gender of the speaking voice do indeed affect our memory of the presented information. when a male voice was used, a higher pitch resulted in significantly better memory performance than a lower pitch. Contrarily, when a female voice was used, a lower pitch resulted in significantly better memory in participants than a higher pitch. Both male and female subjects performed significantly better with a female voice in a noisy background. In nutshell, the result of this study suggests using a female voice for robots in noisy conditions, as in the case of simultaneously speaking robots, can significantly improve the retrieval of presented information in human subjects.
随着快速可靠的国际交通，现在有更多来自不同语言背景的人可以进行互动。因此，需要能够流利使用多种语言的交际代理来协助这些人。雇佣能流利使用多种语言的人类助手成本高昂，这使得在国际会议上使用社交机器人成为一种更实惠的选择。研究的目标是让一个能够同时用多种语言向观众展示信息的社交机器人。然而，背景噪音对人类言语理解的负面影响已经得到充分证实。因此，机器人同时用两种不同的语言呈现信息会给同时听双语机器人说话的两个人造成不利的听力条件。在这项研究中，我们调查了机器人语音的音调和性别是否会影响人类受试者在存在背景噪音的情况下对所呈现信息的记忆。结果表明，说话人的音调和性别确实会影响我们对所呈现信息的记忆。当使用男声时，较高的音调比较低的音调产生的记忆效果明显更好。相反，当使用女声时，较低的音调比较高的音调产生的记忆效果在参与者中明显更好。男性和女性受试者在嘈杂的背景下使用女性声音时表现明显更好。简而言之，这项研究的结果表明，在嘈杂的环境中，机器人使用女性声音，就像同时说话的机器人一样，可以显著提高人类受试者对呈现信息的检索能力。
