arXiv subjects

R. Ng

Publications and source records attributed to R. Ng.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Building Proactive Voice Assistants: When and How (not) to Interact

Voice assistants have recently achieved remarkable commercial success. However, the current generation of these devices is typically capable of only reactive interactions. In other words, interactions have to be initiated by the user, which somewhat limits their usability and user experience. We propose, that the next generation of such devices should be able to proactively provide the right information in the right way at the right time, without being prompted by the user. However, achieving this is not straightforward, since there is the danger it could interrupt what the user is doing too much, resulting in it being distracting or even annoying. Furthermore, it could unwittingly, reveal sensitive/private information to third parties. In this report, we discuss the challenges of developing proactively initiated interactions, and suggest a framework for when it is appropriate for the device to intervene. To validate our design assumptions, we describe firstly, how we built a functioning prototype and secondly, a user study that was conducted to assess users' reactions and reflections when in the presence of a proactive voice assistant. This pre-print summarises the state, ideas and progress towards a proactive device as of autumn 2018.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2015

Quantum Critical Scaling of Dirty Bosons in Two Dimensions

We determine the dynamical critical exponent, $z$, appearing at the Bose glass to superfluid transition in two dimensions by performing large scale numerical studies of two microscopically different quantum models within the universality class; The hard-core boson model and the quantum rotor (soft core) model, both subject to strong on-site disorder. By performing many simulations at different system size, $L$, and inverse temperature, $β$, close to the quantum critical point, the position of the critical point and the critical exponents, $z$, $ν$ and $η$ can be determined independently of any prior assumptions of the numerical value of $z$. This is done by a careful scaling analysis close to the critical point with a particular focus on the temperature dependence of the scaling functions. For the hard-core boson model we find $z=1.88(8), ν=0.99(3)$ and $η=-0.16(8)$ with a critical field of $h_c=4.79(3)$, while for the quantum rotor model we find $z=1.99(5), ν=1.00(2)$ and $η=-0.3(1)$ with a critical hopping parameter of $t_c=0.0760(5)$. In both cases do we find a correlation length exponent consistent with $ν=1$, saturating the bound $ν\ge 2/d$ as well as a value of $z$ significantly larger than previous studies, and for the quantum rotor model consistent with $z=d$.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗