Engaging in a Multimodal Dialogue with Embodied Conversational Agents 
along the Virtuality Continuum

Elisabeth Andre

In my talk, I will present a new generation of synthetic characters
that are no longer bound to a flat screen, but able to enter a
physical world and to engage in a conversation with a human
user. Users and characters do no longer inhabit separated spaces, but
share an informational and physical reality that is augmented by
digital objects. As a consequence, communication has to take into
account both the physical and the digital context. The talk will
analyse new forms of deixis that are enabled by so-called directing-to
and placing-for behaviours and may involve conversational
locomotion. Directing-to behaviours rely on a number of verbal and
non-verbal means including demonstrative pronouns, eye gaze or
pointing gestures to signal the addressee what they are talking
about. In my talk, I will show how to emulate such behaviours using an
embodied conversational agent. Placing-for behaviours differ from
directing-to behaviours by moving objects in the addressee’s focus of
attention. In my talk, I will present various tangible interfaces
developed by our lab to enable placing-for behaviours in the physical
space.