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Affective Interfaces of Embodied Conversational Agents Affective Interfaces of Embodied Conversational Agents Studies of Hardware and Character Interfaces Yi-Chen Hsu DOCTORAL THESIS School of Design Studies College of Fine Arts The University of New South Wales October 2011 ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed Date 01/05/2012 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.' Signed Date 01/05/2012 AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’ Signed Date 01/05/2012 Acknowledgements I would like to thank several people and institutions for providing me with the necessary guidance and support to complete this research. First of all, I truly express my wholehearted gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Ross Harley, for his solid knowledge and rich experience in the field of multimedia research. This insight has benefited me throughout my work, from the starting point of my dissertation to the end, involving the interpretation of the findings of my study. I also sincerely express my thanks to my co- supervisor, Associate Professor Fang Xu. His wise advice has greatly contributed to improving my research structure. Finally, in terms of academic counselling, I thank Doctor Steve Clark, whose shrewd suggestions significantly helped me with the formation of concepts and in the design of research. I express my heartfelt thanks to the Institute of Information Science (IASL), Academia Sinica, which gave me detailed technical suggestions and support on the artificial intelligence aspects of my research. I offer considerable appreciation to the Apple University Consortium for the loan of equipment for performing the hardware interface experiment. Of course, I also want to give my regards to the friends around me for always supporting me with my research. In particular, I want to thank Ivy and Dora, who assisted me with two experiments, Sindy and Shmmindy, who gave me invaluable advice on statistics, Kevin and Haor, who provided me with some technological help on system developments, and Philip and Meeno, who helped me improve my practical skills in professional writing. There are so many more individuals who have assisted me throughout the duration of my research, although too many to mention in this piece. For those of you not referred to by name, I also want to thank you profusely. Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my family, especially my parents, my brother and my sister, who provided every type of support that I needed to succeed in this endeavour. iv Table of Contents Originality Statement ......................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v List of Figures .................................................................................................................... ix List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... xi Abstract ............................................................................................................................ xiii Glossary ........................................................................................................................... xiv Prologue. The Interface is a Social Actor ....................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 9 1.1. When Computers are Embodied Characters ...................................................... 11 1.2. The Importance of Affective Factors .................................................................. 14 1.3. What are Anthropomorphic Agents? .................................................................. 16 1.4. Domain Analysis ................................................................................................. 21 1.5. Summary ............................................................................................................. 25 Part I. Study of Affective Interfaces of ECAs ........................................................... 29 Chapter 2. From AI to ECAs ......................................................................................... 31 2.1. Brief Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) ................................................ 31 2.2. Intelligent Agents ................................................................................................ 38 2.3. Affective Computing ........................................................................................... 42 2.4. Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) .......................................................... 44 Chapter 3. Interface Design of Agents .......................................................................... 51 3.1. User Interfaces ................................................................................................... 51 3.2. Interfaces of Embodied Agents ........................................................................... 62 3.3. Visual Impact of Agent Interfaces....................................................................... 66 3.4. Methods of Agent Interface Study ....................................................................... 72 Chapter 4. Affective Factors of Intelligent Agents ........................................................ 77 v 4.1. What is Affect? .................................................................................................... 77 4.2. Affective Displays – Emotions ............................................................................ 80 4.3. Affective Science ................................................................................................. 83 4.4. Affective Factors and Influences ......................................................................... 87 4.5. Affective Agents ................................................................................................... 90 Part II. Surveys on Hardware and Character Interfaces of ECAs ......................... 93 Chapter 5. Method of Hardware Interfaces of Chatbots ................................................ 95 5.1. Method ................................................................................................................ 95 5.2. Measures ........................................................................................................... 100 5.3. Materials ........................................................................................................... 103 5.4. Hardware Interface Design of Chatbots ........................................................... 110 Chapter 6. Evaluation of Hardware Interfaces of Chatbots ......................................... 115 6.1. Procedure.......................................................................................................... 115 6.2. Subjects ............................................................................................................. 118 6.3. Analysis of Questionnaire ................................................................................. 120 6.4. Qualitative Results ............................................................................................ 124 6.5. Summary ........................................................................................................... 132 Chapter 7. Method of Character Interfaces of CompanionBots ................................... 135 7.1. Method .............................................................................................................
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