Can Respiration Make Spoken Interactions Better?

With the growing use of agents such as chatbots in daily life, enhancing human-agent spoken interactions has become a critical area of research. This study explores the potential of respiratory information to enhance these interactions. We implemented two functions: speech collision avoidance based on speech onset prediction using human respiratory information, and pseudo-respiration presentation to humans by the vertical movements of a robot. We developed a conversational robot incorporating these functions and conducted experiments with 26 human participants. The experimental results confirmed these functions contributed to the smoothness of interactions.