Synopses & Reviews
Embodied conversational agents are computer-generated cartoonlike characters that demonstrate many of the same properties as humans in face-to-face conversation, including the ability to produce and respond to verbal and nonverbal communication. They constitute a type of (a) multimodal interface where the modalities are those natural to human conversation: speech, facial displays, hand gestures, and body stance; (b) software agent, insofar as they represent the computer in an interaction with a human or represent their human users in a computational environment (as avatars, for example); and (c) dialogue system where both verbal and nonverbal devices advance and regulate the dialogue between the user and the computer. With an embodied conversational agent, the visual dimension of interacting with an animated character on a screen plays an intrinsic role. Not just pretty pictures, the graphics display visual features of conversation in the same way that the face and hands do in face-to-face conversation among humans.This book describes research in all aspects of the design, implementation, and evaluation of embodied conversational agents as well as details of specific working systems. Many of the chapters are written by multidisciplinary teams of psychologists, linguists, computer scientists, artists, and researchers in interface design. The authors include Elisabeth Andre, Norm Badler, Gene Ball, Justine Cassell, Elizabeth Churchill, James Lester, Dominic Massaro, Cliff Nass, Sharon Oviatt, Isabella Poggi, Jeff Rickel, and Greg Sanders.
Synopsis
This book describes research in all aspects of the design, implementation, and evaluation of embodied conversational agents as well as details of specific working systems.
Embodied conversational agents are computer-generated cartoonlike characters that demonstrate many of the same properties as humans in face-to-face conversation, including the ability to produce and respond to verbal and nonverbal communication. They constitute a type of (a) multimodal interface where the modalities are those natural to human conversation: speech, facial displays, hand gestures, and body stance; (b) software agent, insofar as they represent the computer in an interaction with a human or represent their human users in a computational environment (as avatars, for example); and (c) dialogue system where both verbal and nonverbal devices advance and regulate the dialogue between the user and the computer. With an embodied conversational agent, the visual dimension of interacting with an animated character on a screen plays an intrinsic role. Not just pretty pictures, the graphics display visual features of conversation in the same way that the face and hands do in face-to-face conversation among humans. This book describes research in all aspects of the design, implementation, and evaluation of embodied conversational agents as well as details of specific working systems. Many of the chapters are written by multidisciplinary teams of psychologists, linguists, computer scientists, artists, and researchers in interface design. The authors include Elisabeth Andre, Norm Badler, Gene Ball, Justine Cassell, Elizabeth Churchill, James Lester, Dominic Massaro, Cliff Nass, Sharon Oviatt, Isabella Poggi, Jeff Rickel, and Greg Sanders.
Synopsis
This book describes research in all aspects of the design, implementation, and evaluation of embodied conversational agents as well as details of specific working systems.
About the Author
Elizabeth F. Churchill is a Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo! Research in Santa Clara, CA.
Table of Contents
Nudge nudge wink wink : elements of face-to-face conversation for embodied conversational agents / Justine Cassell -- Human conversation as a system framework : designing embodied conversational agents / Justine Cassell ... et al. -- "May I help you?" Designing embodied conversational agent allies / Elizabeth F. Churchill ... et al. -- Task-oriented collaboration with embodied agents in virtual worlds / Jeff Rickel and W. Lewis Johnson -- Deictic and emotive communication in animated pedagogical agents / James C. Lester ... et al. -- Performative facial expressions in animated faces / Isabella Poggi and Catherine Pelachaud -- Emotion and personality in a conversational agent / Gene Ball and Jack Breese -- The automated design of believable dialogues for animated presentation teams / Elisabeth Andrâe ... et al. -- Parameterized action representation for virtual human agents / Norman I. Badler ... et al. -- Developing and evaluating conversational agents / Dominic W. Massaro ... et al. -- Designing and evaluating conversational interfaces with animated characters / Sharon Oviatt and Bridget Adams -- Measurement and evaluation of embodied conversational agents / Gregory A. Sanders and Jean Scholtz -- Truth is beauty : researching embodied conversational agents / Clifford Nass, Katherine Isbister, and Eun-Ju Lee.