杏吧原创

It takes a woman鈥檚 touch to calm down stressed-out computer users, research suggests.

Past work has shown that people are left less annoyed by computers if on-screen help is delivered with a degree of empathy. Computers that 鈥渁pologise鈥� fare even better (New 杏吧原创, 17 July 2004, p 20).

But Kate Hone, an information-systems researcher at Brunel University in Uxbridge, UK, wondered if such help could ease user frustration even more effectively if delivered by a friendly animated person.

To find out, she asked two groups of people to play a simple bat-and-ball computer game in which the bat had been doctored to occasionally behave sluggishly. When users became irritated, one group received text-only help,while the other was assisted by an animated person offering the same sympathetic advice in a speech bubble.

Those using the animated version reported far less frustration, Hone says. When the volunteers were then given the choice of a male or female animation, the female won out. She suggests this is because women are often seen as more empathetic than men. But she admits the agent 鈥� an attractive blonde female 鈥� may also have contributed to the outcome. Her work will be published in Interacting with Computers.

Hone now wants to use 鈥渆motion recognition鈥� to tailor online help to a player鈥檚 stress level. To do this, she will analyse people鈥檚 facial expressions, tone of voice and even sweat levels using webcams, microphones and a special mouse, respectively.