Social identification of embodied interactive agent

An embodiment interactive agent has a virtual body that is generally drawn by CG animation. We intuitively assume that the agent\´s body primarily expresses non-verbal messages, or symbolizes its social characteristics through its appearance. However, we have not objectively elucidated the expressive competence of an agent\´s body beyond the conclusions of our empirical and subjective intuition. Therefore, it is necessary to explore scientifically how do users regard the functional competence of an agent\´s embodiment. We investigated how users physically interact with an agent even though it is merely a virtual entity drawn by CG on the display, through "showing" something to the eye of the agent, "listening" something from the mouth of the agent, and "speaking" something to the ear of the agent. However, such interaction does not necessarily attribute the intellectual processing function to the agent, and this issue is explored through two psychological experiments.