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Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 4121

Part of: Series: Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)

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published at: 2006-03-14
Publisher: Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik

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DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.1

04121 Abstracts Collection – Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents

Authors: Zsofia Ruttkay, Elisabeth André, W. Lewis Johnson, and Catherine Pelachaud

Abstract

From 14.03.04 to 19.03.04, the Dagstuhl Seminar 04121 ``Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents'' was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available.

Cite as

Zsofia Ruttkay, Elisabeth André, W. Lewis Johnson, and Catherine Pelachaud. 04121 Abstracts Collection – Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents. In Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 4121, pp. 1-13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2006)

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@InProceedings{ruttkay_et_al:DagSemProc.04121.1,
  author =	{Ruttkay, Zsofia and Andr\'{e}, Elisabeth and Johnson, W. Lewis and Pelachaud, Catherine},
  title =	{{04121 Abstracts Collection – Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents}},
  booktitle =	{Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents},
  pages =	{1--13},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2006},
  volume =	{4121},
  editor =	{Zsofia Ruttkay and Elisabeth Andr\'{e} and W. Lewis Johnson and Catherine Pelachaud},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-5015},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Critical evaluation of some implemented EcAs, issues and framework for evaluation and design}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.2

04121 Working Group 2 – Design criteria, techniques and case studies for creating and evaluating interactive experiences for virtual humans

Authors: Jonathan Gratch, Arjan Egges, Anton Eliens, Katherine Isbister, Stacy Marsella, Ana Paiva, Thomas Rist, and Paul ten Hagen

Abstract

How does one go about designing a human? With the rise in recent years of virtual humans this is no longer purely a philosophical question. Virtual humans are intelligent agents with a body, often a human-like graphical body, that interact verbally and non-verbally with human users on a variety of tasks and applications. Our working group approached this question from the perspective of interactivity. Specifically, how can one design effective interactive experiences involving a virtual human, and what constraints does this goal place on the form and function of an embodied conversational agent. Our group grappled with several related questions: What ideals should designers aspire to, what sources of theory and data will best lead to this goal and what methodologies can inform and validate the design process? A longer article (.pdf) summarizes the output of this WG and suggests a specific framework, borrowed from interactive media design, as a vehicle for advancing the state of interactive experiences with virtual humans.

Cite as

Jonathan Gratch, Arjan Egges, Anton Eliens, Katherine Isbister, Stacy Marsella, Ana Paiva, Thomas Rist, and Paul ten Hagen. 04121 Working Group 2 – Design criteria, techniques and case studies for creating and evaluating interactive experiences for virtual humans. In Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 4121, pp. 1-6, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2006)

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@InProceedings{gratch_et_al:DagSemProc.04121.2,
  author =	{Gratch, Jonathan and Egges, Arjan and Eliens, Anton and Isbister, Katherine and Marsella, Stacy and Paiva, Ana and Rist, Thomas and ten Hagen, Paul},
  title =	{{04121 Working Group 2 – Design criteria, techniques and case studies for creating and evaluating interactive experiences for virtual humans}},
  booktitle =	{Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents},
  pages =	{1--6},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2006},
  volume =	{4121},
  editor =	{Zsofia Ruttkay and Elisabeth Andr\'{e} and W. Lewis Johnson and Catherine Pelachaud},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-4621},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: }
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.3

ECA Perspectives - Requirements, Applications, Technology

Authors: Anton Eliens, Zhisheng Huang, Johan F. Hoorn, and Cees T. Visser

Abstract

In the last years we have developed a platform for the realization of embodied (conversational) agents, in a distributed logic programming framework. In this paper we will present an overview of our work, by discussing the requirements that acted as our guidelines for design decisions during development, some of the applications that have served as target demonstrators for developing and testing new functionality, and the (distributed logic programming) technology which we used for the realization of the platform and the implementation of our STEP scripting language. Although the focus of our paper will primarily be our own DLP+X3D platform, we believe that our discussion along the perspectives of requirements, applications and technology might be more generally worthwhile in establishing the relative merits of the operational use of ECA-technology. At the end of this paper, we will moreover provide some hints of how to approach the experimental validation of the (possible) benefits of embodied conversational agents in user applications.

Cite as

Anton Eliens, Zhisheng Huang, Johan F. Hoorn, and Cees T. Visser. ECA Perspectives - Requirements, Applications, Technology. In Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 4121, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2006)

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@InProceedings{eliens_et_al:DagSemProc.04121.3,
  author =	{Eliens, Anton and Huang, Zhisheng and Hoorn, Johan F. and Visser, Cees T.},
  title =	{{ECA Perspectives - Requirements, Applications, Technology}},
  booktitle =	{Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2006},
  volume =	{4121},
  editor =	{Zsofia Ruttkay and Elisabeth Andr\'{e} and W. Lewis Johnson and Catherine Pelachaud},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-4611},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Embodied agents, virtual environments, rich media}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.4

Evaluating ECAs - What,how and why?

Authors: Zsofia Ruttkay, Claire Dormann, and Han Noot

Abstract

One would like to rely on design guidelines for embodied conversational agents (ECAs), grounded on evaluation studies. How to define the physical and mental characteristics of an ECA, optimal for an envisioned application? What will be the added value of using an ECA? Although there have been studies addressing such issues, we are still far from getting a complete picture. This is not only due to the still relatively little experience with applications of ECAs, but also to the diversity in terms and experimental settings used. The lack of a common, established framework makes it difficult to compare ECAs, interpret evaluation results and judge their scope and relevance. In this paper we propose a common taxonomy of the relevant design and evaluation aspects of ECAs. We refer to recent works to elicit evaluation concepts and discuss measurement issues.

Cite as

Zsofia Ruttkay, Claire Dormann, and Han Noot. Evaluating ECAs - What,how and why?. In Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 4121, pp. 1-8, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2006)

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@InProceedings{ruttkay_et_al:DagSemProc.04121.4,
  author =	{Ruttkay, Zsofia and Dormann, Claire and Noot, Han},
  title =	{{Evaluating ECAs - What,how and why?}},
  booktitle =	{Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents},
  pages =	{1--8},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2006},
  volume =	{4121},
  editor =	{Zsofia Ruttkay and Elisabeth Andr\'{e} and W. Lewis Johnson and Catherine Pelachaud},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.4},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-5867},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.4},
  annote =	{Keywords: Embodied conversational agents, design, evaluation framework, methodology}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.5

Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents in Collaborative Virtual Environments

Authors: Michael Gerhard

Abstract

There are currently no evaluation methods specific to ECAs in CVEs and traditional evaluation methods are limited in their applicability and consequently unlikely to address the full range of aspects now inherent in such systems. We argue that a combination of controlled experimentation, quasi-experiments, review-based evaluation and heuristic expert reviews is needed. To operationalise these traditional evaluation methods the concept of presence was deployed, and it was argued that presence as a cognitive variable can be measured and that such a measure can be a key indicator of the usability of ECAs in CVEs. Presence measures can be administered within controlled experiments and quasi-experiments to test certain aspects of the system. Such experiments might turn out particularly useful as a means of selecting between two or more design options and it is argued that issues concerning ECAs in CVEs can be meaningfully evaluated by comparing subjects’ experience of presence. Further, although implementation issues were not the primary concern of this study, the strength and shortcomings of the prototype agent were evaluated as secondary variables within that experiment. A set of criteria developed for the evaluation of the strengths and shortcomings of the current prototype agent are partly based on Nielsen’s general usability guidelines and partly on a set of heuristics proposed for non-embodied conversational systems.

Cite as

Michael Gerhard. Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents in Collaborative Virtual Environments. In Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 4121, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2006)

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@InProceedings{gerhard:DagSemProc.04121.5,
  author =	{Gerhard, Michael},
  title =	{{Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents in Collaborative Virtual Environments}},
  booktitle =	{Evaluating Embodied Conversational Agents},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2006},
  volume =	{4121},
  editor =	{Zsofia Ruttkay and Elisabeth Andr\'{e} and W. Lewis Johnson and Catherine Pelachaud},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-4609},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.04121.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: Embodied Conversational Agents,Collaborative Virtual Environments, Presence}
}

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