Abstract
An avatar called Autonomic Communication Exchange (ACE) has been developed by our research team. This job aid is designed for both hands-free and autonomic collection of maintenance data. Through conversational communication and other auditory, visual and paralinguistic cues, ACE collects maintenance data allowing a technician to continue performing hands-on maintenance tasks. Maintenance data collection, in this case, goes well beyond standard voice interaction, with some information collected autonomically using RFID technology—thereby creating a Smart Avatar. The current study evaluates the use of a Smart Avatar compared to traditional manual-entry-based and standard voice systems. Twelve participants were asked to complete a series of remove and replace tasks while interacting with the ACE prototype system and a K'NEX® motorized simple machine educational kit (simulating a maintenance task). While manual entry was faster than other conditions, the project goal was for hands-free maintenance. In this case, the RFID and speech interaction was the only condition significantly faster than other alternatives. Additionally, users rated the ease of use of the RFID with speech interaction higher all of the other conditions. The presence of a visual model of a human head for the avatar also increased the participant's perceived quickness and accuracy of data entry.
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