Adding facial expressions to ECAsGROUP 15 - Rianne Nieland - Georgios Lilikakis - Sylvia van Schie - Andy Wang - Bart Witteveen

Embodied Conversational Agents

● Recognize, respond to and generate verbal and non-verbal behaviour● Deal with conversational functions● Give signals that indicate state of conversation

Facial Expressions

Blinking, eyebrow movements, head nodding

Topic introduction

Literature

Likeability indicates if something or someone is pleasant, friendly,

or easy to like.

Likeability is measured with two factors:

● attractiveness ● expertise

What influence do slight facial expressions of an ECA have on the

likeability perceived by the user?

The likeability of an ECA, as perceived by the user, is influenced by the

addition of some facial expressions.

Research question + Hypothesis

What is likeability?

Method: Literature review

Does adding minor facial expressions to an ECA influence

the likeability perceived by the user?

Method: Survey with basic question (gender, age) + Reysen likeability scale

Significant test: Independent samples T-Test

Methods

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKzBVN4iolQ

Questionnaire

Results 1/2

Figure 3. Overview of the two groups: Moving and Static

Figure 1. Figure 2 Cronbach’s Alpha internal concistancy of the items Distribution of men and women among different types of ECA

Results 2/2H1: The likeability of an ECA, as perceived by the user, is influenced by the

addition of some facial expressions.

We reject H1.

The statement ‘I would like this person as my roommate' shows the largest

difference between static and moving.

Women like the representations more than men. (not significant)

DiscussionReysen likeability scale made for measuring likeability of person

Not using completely functional ECA

Only female ECA and then the statements:

● This person is physically attractive.● This person is similar to me.

ConclusionAdding facial expressions to an ECA does not influence

the likeability perceived by the user.

Future work

Experiment with completely functional ECAs, one male and one female.

Equally gender divided sample groups.

Questions?