Basic components of a face-to-face interaction with a conversational agent: mutual attention and deixis

We present a series of experiments that involve a face-to-face interaction between an embodied conversational agent (ECA) and a human interlocutor. The main challenge is to provide the interlocutor with implicit and explicit signs of mutual interest and attention and of the awareness of environmental conditions in which the interaction takes place. A video realistic talking head with independent head and eye movements was used as a talking agent interacting with a user during a simple card game offering different levels of help and guidance. We analyzed the user performance and how the quality of assistance given by the embodied conversational agent was perceived. The experiment showed that users can profit from its presence and its facial deictic cues. 1