Dating a synthetic character is like dating a man

Johan F. Hoorn; Elly A. Konijn; Matthijs A. Pontier

doi:10.1007/s12369-018-0496-1

Dating a synthetic character is like dating a man

Johan F. Hoorn^*, Elly A. Konijn, Matthijs A. Pontier

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

To evaluate our emotionally intelligent software, we put a virtual human capable of speech and facial expressions to an updated and enriched version of the traditional Turing test. In a speed-date with 54 young females, either our software or human confederates controlled the simulation of the virtual human’s affective performance. Results were obtained with frequentist analysis and Bayesian structural equation modeling. Indeed, participants did not detect differences and observed similarity in the emotional behavior of the virtual human and in the way it assumingly perceived them. Additionally, participants did not recognize different but similar cognitive-affective structures between humans and our system. As is, designers may use our software for believable affective virtual humans or robots. Moreover, as far as the richness of interaction possibilities in the speed-dating session allowed, our software seems to reproduce human cognitive-affective structures.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	235-253
Number of pages	19
Journal	International Journal of Social Robotics
Volume	11
Issue number	2
Early online date	31 Oct 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-018-0496-1
Publication status	Published - Apr 2019

Funding

Acknowledgements This study is part of the Services of Electromechanical Care Agencies (SELEMCA) project and was supported by a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (grant number NWO 646.000.003). The authors wish to thank Rens van de Schoot for the Bayesian analysis. We kindly acknowledge Ivy S. Huang for her translation of the abstract into Chinese. Funding This study was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (Grant No. NWO 646.000.003).

Funders	Funder number
Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science	NWO 646.000.003
Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap	646.000.003

Keywords

Affective computing
Bayesian analysis
Cognitive models
Social agents
Turing test

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1007/s12369-018-0496-1

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Dating a synthetic character is like dating a man

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Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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