Physical embodiments for mobile communication agents

This paper describes a physically embodied and animated user interface to an interactive call handling agent, consisting of a small wireless animatronic device in the form of a squirrel, bunny, or parrot. A software tool creates movement primitives, composes these primitives into complex behaviors, and triggers these behaviors dynamically at state changes in the conversational agent's finite state machine. Gaze and gestural cues from the animatronics alert both the user and co-located third parties of incoming phone calls, and data suggests that such alerting is less intrusive than conventional telephones.