Kawaii Vocalics: Modelling Reactions to "Cute" Voice Phenomena in Interactive Agents

• Project/Area Number: 24K02972
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 61020:Human interface and interaction-related; Basic Section 62040:Entertainment and game informatics-related; Sections That Are Subject to Joint Review: Basic Section61020:Human interface and interaction-related , Basic Section62040:Entertainment and game informatics-related
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: シーボーン ケイティー 東京工業大学, 工学院, 准教授 (70831262)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 小池 真由 東京工業大学, 工学院, 助教 (40911590) ; 加藤 淳 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 情報・人間工学領域, 主任研究員 (70738054)
• Project Period (FY): 2024-04-01 – 2028-03-31
• Project Status: Granted (Fiscal Year 2024)
• Budget Amount: ¥18,070,000 (Direct Cost: ¥13,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,170,000); Fiscal Year 2027: ¥4,420,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,020,000); Fiscal Year 2026: ¥4,160,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥960,000); Fiscal Year 2025: ¥5,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,200,000); Fiscal Year 2024: ¥4,290,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥990,000)
• Keywords: kawaii / HCI / voice user experience / computer voice / human-agent interaction

Outline of Research at the Start

We will explore kawaii voice phenomena from two research frames: (i) the nature and attributes of kawaii vocalics compared to kawaii visuals and (ii) emotion and behaviour elicitation through virtual agents with kawaii voices.