1. Embodied Interfaces
Many people assume that embodied agents (i.e. virtual humans) will enhance HCI as they can….
take advantage of pre-existing social skills (e.g. body language)
make an interaction more natural
However, research in this area has failed (to date) to clarify this
Embodied agents that have been developed to date are often of poor quality

2. My Research
Investigating psychological responses to embodied agents (in particular, responses to emotion simulation)
Do we respond to a synthetic smile in a similar way to a human smile?
How do we respond to synthetic displays of empathy?
Can we catch emotions from computers?
An embodied nutritional coach has been built…
Will attempt to help motivate people to eat more healthily
Will make use of techniques that human health professionals often use
Experiments will be conducted over both short and long-term interactions

3. Reality Based Interaction
The more realistic an embodied agent is the more effective communication should be
Realistic agents should be able to make use of body language and social cues to enhance communication
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean people will prefer interacting with realistic virtual humans…
Users may feel uncomfortable
Other agent representations may be preferred (e.g. caricatures, abstract virtual humans)
Degree of agent realism is important
A more realistic interaction may not always enhance HCI