Advancing User-Voice Interaction: Exploring Emotion-Aware Voice Assistants Through a Role-Swapping Approach

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ma, Yong, Zhang, Yuchong, Fu, Di, Portales, Stephanie Zubicueta, Kragic, Danica, Fjeld, Morten
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ma, Yong
Zhang, Yuchong
Fu, Di
Portales, Stephanie Zubicueta
Kragic, Danica
Fjeld, Morten
author_facet Ma, Yong
Zhang, Yuchong
Fu, Di
Portales, Stephanie Zubicueta
Kragic, Danica
Fjeld, Morten
contents As voice assistants (VAs) become increasingly integrated into daily life, the need for emotion-aware systems that can recognize and respond appropriately to user emotions has grown. While significant progress has been made in speech emotion recognition (SER) and sentiment analysis, effectively addressing user emotions-particularly negative ones-remains a challenge. This study explores human emotional response strategies in VA interactions using a role-swapping approach, where participants regulate AI emotions rather than receiving pre-programmed responses. Through speech feature analysis and natural language processing (NLP), we examined acoustic and linguistic patterns across various emotional scenarios. Results show that participants favor neutral or positive emotional responses when engaging with negative emotional cues, highlighting a natural tendency toward emotional regulation and de-escalation. Key acoustic indicators such as root mean square (RMS), zero-crossing rate (ZCR), and jitter were identified as sensitive to emotional states, while sentiment polarity and lexical diversity (TTR) distinguished between positive and negative responses. These findings provide valuable insights for developing adaptive, context-aware VAs capable of delivering empathetic, culturally sensitive, and user-aligned responses. By understanding how humans naturally regulate emotions in AI interactions, this research contributes to the design of more intuitive and emotionally intelligent voice assistants, enhancing user trust and engagement in human-AI interactions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_15367
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Advancing User-Voice Interaction: Exploring Emotion-Aware Voice Assistants Through a Role-Swapping Approach
Ma, Yong
Zhang, Yuchong
Fu, Di
Portales, Stephanie Zubicueta
Kragic, Danica
Fjeld, Morten
Human-Computer Interaction
Sound
Audio and Speech Processing
As voice assistants (VAs) become increasingly integrated into daily life, the need for emotion-aware systems that can recognize and respond appropriately to user emotions has grown. While significant progress has been made in speech emotion recognition (SER) and sentiment analysis, effectively addressing user emotions-particularly negative ones-remains a challenge. This study explores human emotional response strategies in VA interactions using a role-swapping approach, where participants regulate AI emotions rather than receiving pre-programmed responses. Through speech feature analysis and natural language processing (NLP), we examined acoustic and linguistic patterns across various emotional scenarios. Results show that participants favor neutral or positive emotional responses when engaging with negative emotional cues, highlighting a natural tendency toward emotional regulation and de-escalation. Key acoustic indicators such as root mean square (RMS), zero-crossing rate (ZCR), and jitter were identified as sensitive to emotional states, while sentiment polarity and lexical diversity (TTR) distinguished between positive and negative responses. These findings provide valuable insights for developing adaptive, context-aware VAs capable of delivering empathetic, culturally sensitive, and user-aligned responses. By understanding how humans naturally regulate emotions in AI interactions, this research contributes to the design of more intuitive and emotionally intelligent voice assistants, enhancing user trust and engagement in human-AI interactions.
title Advancing User-Voice Interaction: Exploring Emotion-Aware Voice Assistants Through a Role-Swapping Approach
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Sound
Audio and Speech Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.15367