research-article

An empathic virtual dialog agent to improve human-machine interaction

Authors:

Catherine Pelachaud,

David SadekAuthors Info & Claims

AAMAS '08: Proceedings of the 7th international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems - Volume 1

Pages 89 - 96

Published: 12 May 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Recent research has shown that virtual agents expressing empathic emotions toward users have the potentiality to enhance human-machine interaction. To identify under which circumstances a virtual agent should express empathic emotions, we have analyzed real human-machine dialog situations that have led users to express emotion. The results of this empirical study have been combined with theoretical descriptions of emotions to construct a model of empathic emotions. Based on this model, a module of emotions has been implemented as a plug-in for JSA agents. It determines the empathic emotions (their types and intensity) of such agents in real time. It has been used to develop a demonstrator where users can interact with an empathic dialog agent to obtain information on their emails. An evaluation of this agent has enabled us to both validate the proposed model of empathic emotions and highlight the positive user's perception of the virtual agent.

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Cited By

Hosseinpanah AKrämer NStraßmann CImai MNorman TSklar EKomatsu T(2018)Empathy for Everyone?Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction10.1145/3284432.3284442(184-190)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3284432.3284442
Richards DBilgin ARanjbartabar HBogdanovych ARichards DSimoff SPelachaud CHeylen DTrescak T(2018)Users' perceptions of empathic dialogue cuesProceedings of the 18th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents10.1145/3267851.3267857(35-42)Online publication date: 5-Nov-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3267851.3267857
Șerban OBarange MZojaji SPauchet ARichard AChanoni ELank EVinciarelli AHoggan ESubramanian SBrewster S(2017)Interactive narration with a child: impact of prosody and facial expressionsProceedings of the 19th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction10.1145/3136755.3136797(23-31)Online publication date: 3-Nov-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3136755.3136797
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

An empathic virtual dialog agent to improve human-machine interaction
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Artificial intelligence
  2. Modeling and simulation
    1. Model development and analysis
      1. Model verification and validation
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

AAMAS '08: Proceedings of the 7th international joint conference on Autonomous agents and multiagent systems - Volume 1

May 2008

565 pages

ISBN:9780981738109

Program Chairs:
Lin Padgham
RMIT University, Australia
,
David Parkes
Harvard University

Sponsors

ACM: Association for Computing Machinery
AAAI: Association for the Advancement of Artifical Intelligence

Publisher

International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems

Richland, SC

Publication History

Published: 12 May 2008

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AAMAS08

Sponsor:

ACM
AAAI

AAMAS08: 7th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi Agent Systems

May 12 - 16, 2008

Estoril, Portugal

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Overall Acceptance Rate 1,155 of 5,036 submissions, 23%

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Cited By

Hosseinpanah AKrämer NStraßmann CImai MNorman TSklar EKomatsu T(2018)Empathy for Everyone?Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction10.1145/3284432.3284442(184-190)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3284432.3284442
Richards DBilgin ARanjbartabar HBogdanovych ARichards DSimoff SPelachaud CHeylen DTrescak T(2018)Users' perceptions of empathic dialogue cuesProceedings of the 18th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents10.1145/3267851.3267857(35-42)Online publication date: 5-Nov-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3267851.3267857
Șerban OBarange MZojaji SPauchet ARichard AChanoni ELank EVinciarelli AHoggan ESubramanian SBrewster S(2017)Interactive narration with a child: impact of prosody and facial expressionsProceedings of the 19th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction10.1145/3136755.3136797(23-31)Online publication date: 3-Nov-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3136755.3136797
Ranjbartabar HRichards DJonker CMarsella SThangarajah JTuyls K(2016)A Virtual Emotional Freedom Therapy PractitionerProceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Autonomous Agents & Multiagent Systems10.5555/2936924.2937216(1471-1473)Online publication date: 9-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2936924.2937216
Horiuchi HSaiki SMatsumoto SNamamura M(2015)Virtual Agent as a User Interface for Home Network SystemInternational Journal of Software Innovation10.4018/ijsi.20150401033:2(13-23)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/ijsi.2015040103
Charles FPecune FAranyi GPelachaud CCavazza MZhang ZCohen PBohus DHoraud RMeng H(2015)ECA Control using a Single Affective User DimensionProceedings of the 2015 ACM on International Conference on Multimodal Interaction10.1145/2818346.2820730(183-190)Online publication date: 9-Nov-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2818346.2820730
Richards DSzilas NCermak-Sassenrath DWalker CTan C(2012)Challenging reality using techniques from interactive drama to support social simulations in virtual worldsProceedings of The 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Playing the System10.1145/2336727.2336739(1-10)Online publication date: 21-Jul-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2336727.2336739
Hupont ICambria ECerezo EHussain ABaldassarri S(2012)Sentic maxineProceedings of the 9th international conference on Advances in Neural Networks - Volume Part II10.1007/978-3-642-31362-2_61(555-565)Online publication date: 11-Jul-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-642-31362-2_61
Boukricha HNguyen NWachsmuth I(2011)Sharing emotions and space - empathy as a basis for cooperative spatial interactionProceedings of the 10th international conference on Intelligent virtual agents10.5555/2041666.2041711(350-362)Online publication date: 15-Sep-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2041666.2041711
Evers Vde Vries RAlvito PBillard AKahn PAdams JTrafton G(2011)Designing interruptive behaviors of a public environmental monitoring robotProceedings of the 6th international conference on Human-robot interaction10.1145/1957656.1957696(131-132)Online publication date: 6-Mar-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1957656.1957696
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