People may welcome talking tissue boxes and other smart objects

PARIS - Just as people have embraced computers and smart phones, they may also give their blessing to talking tissue boxes and other smart objects, according to Penn State researchers. "Smart objects will become more and more a part of our daily lives," said S. Shyam Sundar , Distinguished Professor of and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory. "We believe the next phase is that objects will start talking and interacting with humans, and our goal is to figure out the best ways for objects to communicate with humans." As sensors and computers increasingly become smaller and cheaper, smart objects will appear in more homes and offices and not be hidden or shielded from interacting with people, according to the researchers. For example, smart refrigerators could talk or send tweets to signal when certain food items are almost out, or when expiration dates are nearing, according to the researchers. "We regularly communicate with objects by collecting data from those objects," said Haiyan Jia, doctoral candidate in mass , who worked with Sundar. "But we wanted to test what happens when objects talk directly to us in a social situation." Researchers videotaped participants as they reacted to a talking box of tissues that was on a desk in the laboratory. Once a laboratory worker sneezed, the tissue box said, "Bless You." The tissue box also responded with two follow-up messages: "Here, take a tissue" and "Take care!" Participants from two other groups heard the same messages from either a laboratory worker or a talking tabletop robot, according to the researchers, who presented their findings at the 2013 Annual Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris today (May 1).