Page 62 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

Chapter 5

PARTY HOSTS AND TOUR GUIDES

Using Nonverbal Social Cues in the Design of Interface
Agents to Support Human-Human Social Interaction

Katherine Isbister
Finali Corporation

Abstract Interface agents have the potential to be catalysts and orchestrators of human-
human social interaction. To excel at this, agents must be designed to function
wellinabusysocialenvironment, reactingtoandconveyingthekindsofprimarily
nonverbal social cues that help create and maintain the flow of social exchange.
This paper sets context for the sorts of cues that are important to track and to
convey, and briefly describes two projects that incorporated such cues in agents
that attempt to help the flow of human-human social interaction.

1. Introduction

1.1 The Importance of Nonverbal Social Cues
Nonverbal cues perform a variety of important functions in everyday human
interaction, such as:

Content and Mechanics: Nonverbal cues convey important content and
conversational mechanics information, such as pointing out a location or
setting up spatial relationships that complement what is said, indicating
that one’s turn is about to end, or setting a rhythm of emphasis (see Clark
or Cassell for more comprehensive discussion of this topic).

Social Intentions and Relationships: Nonverbal cues also express social
intentions and interrelationships. For example, lovers will stand closer
together than strangers; angry people may move closer to one another,
turning up the proximity volume as they may turn up the volume of their
voices (Hall).