An Intelligent Artifact as a Cohabitant: An Analysis of a Home Robot_s Conversation Log

This paper examines an unprecedented phenomenon in communication between human and intelligent artifacts within the home environment over the course of a 16 day-long experiment. We applied protocol analysis to analyze user utterances recognized by a voice recognition system on the home robot from the cognitive viewpoint. In this paper, two types of analysis have been conducted: (i) time-series analysis and (ii) analysis of differences in each room. The results indicate that (a) users get accustomed over time to the intelligent artifact and attachment emotions are elicited gradually with the passage of time, (b) users have gradually mixed cognition for the intelligent artifacts, which come to be recognized both as a cohabitant and as a tool, (c) users' complains have been counterbalanced with attachment emotions, and (d) users' cognition is different in each room and their cognition involving the intelligent artifacts would be also different.