ABSTRACT

While lifelike characters or animated interface agents (Figure 22.1) with affective behavior are becoming ever more popular as virtual interaction partners (Cassell et al. 2000; Prendinger and Ishizuka 2004), little is known about how they impact on the emotional state of human interaction partners. This situation is quite surprising given the large body of literature asserting the key importance and positive effect of

Figure 22.1 Example of lifelike characters: our two original agents which were designed by a Japanese artist (Nischt et al. 2006a).