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A Study on Automated Receptionists in a Real-World Scenario

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Advances in Practical Applications of Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Trustworthiness. The PAAMS Collection (PAAMS 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 12092))

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Abstract

The commercial availability of robots and voice-operated smart devices such as Alexa or Google Home have some companies wondering whether they can replace some current human interactions by using these devices. One such area of interaction is at the reception desk. While both platforms can offer the necessary interaction features to take on the task of an automated receptionist, the question remains as to which platform actual visitors would prefer - body or no body? To this end we created a receptionist agent that can receive visitors with an appointment, presented as either an embodied robot or a disembodied smart display. The agent uses common commercial products and services, and was tested in a real-world environment with real visitors.

The results show no significant difference in visitor preference for either platform.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Joost Bosman, Edwin van Dillen and Martijn Schuts for their willing contributions to this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Koen V. Hindriks

  2. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Ralf Wolter & Catholijn M. Jonker

  3. ING, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Ralf Wolter & Dalya Samur

Authors
  1. Ralf Wolter
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  2. Koen V. Hindriks
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  3. Dalya Samur
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  4. Catholijn M. Jonker
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ralf Wolter .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Grenoble, France

    Yves Demazeau

  2. Catholic University of Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium

    Tom Holvoet

  3. University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Juan M. Corchado

  4. University of L’Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy

    Stefania Costantini

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Wolter, R., Hindriks, K.V., Samur, D., Jonker, C.M. (2020). A Study on Automated Receptionists in a Real-World Scenario. In: Demazeau, Y., Holvoet, T., Corchado, J., Costantini, S. (eds) Advances in Practical Applications of Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Trustworthiness. The PAAMS Collection. PAAMS 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12092. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49778-1_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49778-1_27

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-49777-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-49778-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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