Let's be friends! A rapport-building 3D embodied conversational agent\n for the Human Support Robot

摘要

Partial subtle mirroring of nonverbal behaviors during conversations (also\nknown as mimicking or parallel empathy), is essential for rapport building,\nwhich in turn is essential for optimal human-human communication outcomes.\nMirroring has been studied in interactions between robots and humans, and in\ninteractions between Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) and humans. However,\nvery few studies examine interactions between humans and ECAs that are\nintegrated with robots, and none of them examine the effect of mirroring\nnonverbal behaviors in such interactions. Our research question is whether\nintegrating an ECA able to mirror its interlocutor's facial expressions and\nhead movements (continuously or intermittently) with a human-service robot will\nimprove the user's experience with the support robot that is able to perform\nuseful mobile manipulative tasks (e.g. at home). Our contribution is the\ncomplex integration of an expressive ECA, able to track its interlocutor's\nface, and to mirror his/her facial expressions and head movements in real time,\nintegrated with a human support robot such that the robot and the agent are\nfully aware of each others', and of the users', nonverbals cues. We also\ndescribe a pilot study we conducted towards answering our research question,\nwhich shows promising results for our forthcoming larger user study.\n