A study of the use of a virtual agent in an ambient intelligence environment

Abstract

In this paper we present the results in the evaluation of the use of a virtual agent together with a spoken dialogue system in an ambient intelligence environment. To develop the study, 35 different subjects had to perform eight different tasks and fill in a questionnaire with their impressions. From the answers we can conclude that the use of the virtual agent does not provide an improvement in their appreciation of the conversation performance but it offers them a more human-like interaction. Only a minority of users preferred to maintain the conversation without the visual support of the virtual agent. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.