With the recent advancements in intelligent personal assistants (IPAs), their popularity is rapidly increasing when it comes to utilizing Automatic Speech Recognition within households. In this study, we used a Wizard-of-Oz methodology to evaluate and compare the usability of American Sign Language (ASL), Tap to Alexa, and smart home apps among 23 deaf participants within a limited-domain smart home environment. Results indicate a slight usability preference for ASL. Linguistic analysis of the participants' signing reveals a diverse range of expressions and vocabulary as they interacted with IPAs in the context of a restricted-domain application. On average, deaf participants exhibited a vocabulary of 47 +/- 17 signs with an additional 10 +/- 7 fingerspelled words, for a total of 246 different signs and 93 different fingerspelled words across all participants. We discuss the implications for the design of limited-vocabulary applications as a stepping-stone toward general-purpose ASL recognition in the future.

翻译：随着智能个人助手（IPA）的最新发展，其利用自动语音识别技术在家居环境中的应用日益普及。本研究采用"巫师之奥兹"方法，在受限领域的智能家居环境中，对23名聋人参与者使用美国手语（ASL）、Tap to Alexa及智能家居应用程序的可用性进行了评估与比较。结果表明，美国手语在可用性上略占优势。参与者手语的语言学分析显示，在与受限领域应用场景下的IPA交互过程中，其表达方式和词汇呈现出多样性。平均而言，聋人参与者使用47±17个手势符号及额外10±7个指拼单词，所有参与者共使用246个不同手势符号和93个不同指拼单词。我们探讨了有限词汇应用设计对迈向未来通用型ASL识别的启示意义。