Perceptions of Explicitly vs. Implicitly Relayed Commands Between a Robot and Smart Speaker

Designers of smart-home systems must make decisions about the perceived identities and interconnectedness of their various devices. To inform these decisions, we performed an online study to examine whether people perceive multiple devices in a smart home as different interfaces for the same system, devices that talk to each other, or independent devices. We manipulated the types of devices in the system (hetero-geneous!homogeneous), how the devices relayed commands to each other (implicit/explicit), and the task requested. Participants were flexible in how they interpreted the devices, presenting an opportunity for designers to select a suitable model.