Moore, R.K., Marxer, R. and Thill, S. (2016) Vocal Interactivity in-and-between Humans, Animals, and Robots. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 3. 61.
Abstract
Almost all animals exploit vocal signals for a range of ecologically motivated purposes: detecting predators/prey and marking territory, expressing emotions, establishing social relations, and sharing information. Whether it is a bird raising an alarm, a whale calling to potential partners, a dog responding to human commands, a parent reading a story with a child, or a business-person accessing stock prices using Siri, vocalization provides a valuable communication channel through which behavior may be coordinated and controlled, and information may be distributed and acquired. Indeed, the ubiquity of vocal interaction has led to research across an extremely diverse array of fields, from assessing animal welfare, to understanding the precursors of human language, to developing voice-based human–machine interaction. Opportunities for cross-fertilization between these fields abound; for example, using artificial cognitive agents to investigate contemporary theories of language grounding, using machine learning to analyze different habitats or adding vocal expressivity to the next generation of language-enabled autonomous social agents. However, much of the research is conducted within well-defined disciplinary boundaries, and many fundamental issues remain. This paper attempts to redress the balance by presenting a comparative review of vocal interaction within-and-between humans, animals, and artificial agents (such as robots), and it identifies a rich set of open research questions that may benefit from an interdisciplinary analysis.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | Copyright © 2016 Moore, Marxer and Thill. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
Keywords: | vocal interaction; speech technology; spoken language; human–robot interaction; animal calls; vocal learning; language evolution; vocal expression |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Computer Science (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 30 Nov 2016 14:23 |
Last Modified: | 30 Nov 2016 14:25 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2016.00061 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Frontiers Media |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3389/frobt.2016.00061 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:108727 |