Embodied Interfaces

1
Embodied Interfaces

• Many people assume that embodied agents (i.e.
  virtual humans) will enhance HCI as they can.
• take advantage of pre-existing social skills
  (e.g. body language)
• make an interaction more natural
• However, research in this area has failed (to
  date) to clarify this
• Embodied agents that have been developed to date
  are often of poor quality

2
My Research

• Investigating psychological responses to embodied
  agents (in particular, responses to emotion
  simulation)
• Do we respond to a synthetic smile in a similar
  way to a human smile?
• How do we respond to synthetic displays of
  empathy?
• Can we catch emotions from computers?
• An embodied nutritional coach has been built
• Will attempt to help motivate people to eat more
  healthily
• Will make use of techniques that human health
  professionals often use
• Experiments will be conducted over both short and
  long-term interactions

3
Reality Based Interaction

• The more realistic an embodied agent is the more
  effective communication should be
• Realistic agents should be able to make use of
  body language and social cues to enhance
  communication
• However, this doesnt necessarily mean people
  will prefer interacting with realistic virtual
  humans
• Users may feel uncomfortable
• Other agent representations may be preferred
  (e.g. caricatures, abstract virtual humans)
• Degree of agent realism is important
• A more realistic interaction may not always
  enhance HCI