Enhancing human-computer interaction with embodied conversational agents

We survey recent research in which the impact of an embodied conversational agent on human-computer interaction has been assessed through a human evaluation. In some cases, the evaluation involved comparing different versions of the agent against itself in the context of a full interactive system; in others, it measured the effect on user perception of spoken output of specific aspects of the embodied agent's behaviour. In almost all of the studies, an embodied agent that displays appropriate non-verbal behaviour was found to enhance the interaction.