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This work was supported by Paradise Welfare Foundation.Objectives: This study investigated the validity and reliability of the Korean meta-Pragmatic Language Assessment for Children (KOPLAC). The KOPLAC has been developed to assess 5-to 12-year-old children's pragmatic language ability. KOPLAC consists of three subtests: communication regulation, discourse and story information inferences, and metalinguistic awareness. Two hundred and seventy typically developing children participated in this study. Methods: For content validity, a 5-score-scale was conducted to validate each item. Five speech-language pathologists served as assessors and the mean score was 4.11. The correlation coefficients between each construct (5 subtests for preschoolers and 6 subtests for school-aged children) score and the total scores were calculated for construct validity. Results: Results showed significant correlation coefficients. For concurrent validity, the correlation coefficients between the results of the KOPLAC and the Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test (REVT) were analyzed. Every subtest is significantly correlated with REVT except for one (between metalinguistic awareness-references and REVT-expressive score). The internal consistency (Cronbach's α) was .45-.91 for preschoolers and .40-.86 for school-aged children. The split-half reliability was .652 for preschoolers and .726 for schoolaged children. Finally, the test-retest reliability was significant and highly reliable (.79-.99). Conclusion:Results of this study indicated that the KOPLAC is a valid and reliable assessment tool for measuring children's pragmatic language ability. However, further studies should be conducted to validate the KOPLAC by providing data from children with language disorders, especially those who have pragmatic language problems.

As an agent delivers content during the communication between an artificial intelligence (AI) machine and a person, the voice of the agent is a crucial factor to be considered. Particularly in the fields of eHealth, the perception of users toward an agent is crucial as it significantly affects the communication between the agent and its patients, as well as the treatment results. Thus, this study examined the effects of the voice of an agent on the perception of users toward the agent and its counseling effects. This study developed a psychological counseling agent with four voices according to gender and age, communicated with the subjects through such agent, and measured the perception of users toward the agent and its counseling effects through a questionnaire. Results demonstrated that the female-voiced agent had a higher level of attractiveness than the male-voiced agent, regardless of the age of such voice, and the agent using an older voice had a higher level of expertness and depth than the agent using a younger voice, regardless of the gender of such voice. The findings of this study are expected to be effectively used to design a voice-based AI agent that considers the optimal voice according to the purpose of use.

The concept of Smart home is receiving a huge attention as a future living environment because of its advantages for elderly and disabled to maintain their quality of life. Smart home is a place equipped with integration of technology and services and closely intertwined with occupant's lifestyle. Therefore it is critical to consider the user's actual needs for ensuring satisfaction. However despite growing researches on user values for smart home, there have been few studies clearly categorizing smart home service and stating user values depending on characteristics of service. Thus, the aim of this research is to classify smart home services on user's perspective, and reveal user values for each smart home services. Through the in-depth literature review, we elicited technology-related user values and service-related user values, and state classification for smart home service. Also the relationship between user values and each smart home services were revealed. The results of this research should help to reflect user's actual needs for designing smart home services.

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Smart Home is an application of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) in living environment.

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