Getting Rid of Wake Words: Moving Towards Seamless Conversations with Intelligent Personal Assistants

Copyright held by the owner/author(s). CHI’20,, April 25–30, 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA ACM 978-1-4503-6819-3/20/04. https://doi.org/10.1145/3334480.XXXXXXX Abstract In this position paper, we aim to draw the attention towards the wake words. The wake words are an integral part of every request addressed to the IPA(Intelligent Personal Assistants). Currently, we use a wake words to initiate the conversation with IPA. Every request made to the IPA is led by the wake words, making a conversation with an IPA more tiresome than a conversation with a human being. It seems that there is lack of discussion of whether wake words are essential or whether there are better alternatives. Can we get rid of wake words completely or at least in specific contexts? In this position paper we highlight the role of wake words and the problems they create. Based on our experience with IPAs we propose three less burdensome alternatives that avoid the problems of wake words in some cases. The proposed approaches are inspired by conversation events in our daily life. From these approaches we aim for a seamless conversation with IPAs.