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RELATIONAL AGENTS GROUP

Relational Agents are computer agents designed to form long-term, social-emotional
relationships with their users. We are investigating the use of these agents in task domains
in which human-agent relationships actually improve task outcomes, such as in coaching,
counseling, psychotherapy and healthcare.

Co-presenter Agent

Copresenter Agent

The quality of most professional oral presentations is often poor, owing to a number of factors, including public speaking anxiety. DynamicDuo is a system that uses an automated, life-sized, animated agent to help inexperienced speakers deliver their presentations in front of an audience. The design of the system was informed by an analysis of talks given by two human presenters to identify the most common dual-presentation formats and transition behaviors used.
In a within-subjects study (N=12) comparing co-presenting with DynamicDuo against solo presenting with conventional presentation software, we demonstrated that our system led to significant improvements in public speaking anxiety and speaking confidence for non-native English speakers. Judges who viewed videotapes of these presentations rated those with DynamicDuo significantly higher on speech quality and overall presentation quality for all presenters. We have also evaluated the use of DynamicDuo in university courses, both as a lecture assistant and as a co-presenter for in-class student presentations.

Publications