Quote:
Human voice accents have been shown to affect people’s perceptions of the speaker, but little research has looked at how synthesized voice accents affect perceptions of robots. This research investigated people’s perceptions of three synthesized voice accents. Three male robot voices were generated: British (UK), American (US), and New Zealand (NZ). *** There was no difference in impression ratings of each voice, but the US accent was rated as more robotic than the NZ accent, and the UK accent was preferred to the US accent. Study two showed that people randomized to the NZ accent had more positive feelings towards the robot and rated the robot’s overall performance as higher compared to the robot with the US voice. These results suggest that the employment of a less robotic voice with a local accent may positively affect user perceptions of robots.
[
International Journal of Social Robotics]
So from now on all robots will be built in New Zealand, because if they were built in Australia no one could understand them when they talked. And what's an "American" accent?