Embodied Conversational Agent
Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) are interactive virtual characters designed to engage in natural language conversations, often incorporating visual and auditory cues to enhance realism and user experience. Current research emphasizes improving ECA expressiveness through multimodal emotion modeling and ensuring consistency across different communication channels (e.g., facial expressions, speech). This involves exploring various architectures, including hybrid models combining neural networks with symbolic reasoning and probabilistic programming frameworks for more adaptable and human-like behavior. The development of ECAs holds significant potential for applications in serious games, therapy, customer service, and other interactive domains requiring natural human-computer interaction.