Marve: a prototype virtual human interface framework for studying human-virtual human interaction

Human to virtual human interaction is the next frontier in interface design, particularly for tasks that are social or collaborative in nature. Several embodied interface agents have been developed for specific social, place-related tasks, but empirical evaluations of these systems have been rare. In this work, we present Marve (Messaging And Recognition Virtual Entity), our general purpose Virtual Human Interface Framework, which integrates cutting-edge interface technologies into a seamless real-time system, to study human to virtual human interaction. Marve is a prototype of a real-time embodied, interactive, autonomous, virtual human interface agent framework. Marve "lives" next to the primary entrance of the Future Computing Lab. His primary tasks are to greet everyone who enters or leaves the lab, and to take and deliver messages to the students and faculty who work there. Marve uses computer vision techniques for passer-by detection, gaze tracking, and face recognition, and communicates via natural language. We present a preliminary empirical study of the basic elements of Marve, including interaction response times, recognition of friends, and ability to learn to recognize new people.