As a DREU student I will be participating in multiple research projects. The projects that I will be working on are the distracted driving study and avatar shopping.

Distracted Driving

The Distracted Driving study is a replicated from another study that we hope to improve. We are evaluating voice-to-text applications and how effective they are when it relates to the dangers of texting while driving. The previous study conducted by an (undisclosed community) contained strategic flaws that rendered the results inconclusive. This summer during our replication of the study, we will have a road blocked from the public and conduct the study. Texting while driving has become a major issue with the use of cellphones. Though forty-one states have banned texting while driving, it is still the leading cause in death in American teens. If this study is successful, we show a multitude of things. One is that voicing more effective than any other voice-to-text applications. Voicing's accessibility minimizes the attention used by the driver and allows them to text without taking their hands off of the steering wheel and eye off of the road.

Avatar Shopping

Avatar shopping is a project that the Clemson team has been working on since 2010. Initially, avatar shopping dealt with a virtual agent and simplifying navigation of the site and shopping for senior citizens. It allows the user to converse with an virtual agent, as they would with a sales representative in a store, and the avatar would help them shop online. Lucy, Tamirat, and I will implement the same idea of virtual agent as a sales agent. Instead of using it as a shopping mechanism, we will use it for heart disease in women. The user would go to the website and the virtual agent would ask what could it help the user with. The user would then speak and/or type the question relating to heart disease, and the avatar would answer it. This project intrigues me because I will be learning some "new tricks" and freshing up on some old ones.

Final Report