Agent “Nah”: Development of a Voice-Driven Embodied Entrainment Character with Non-agreeable Responses

Herein, we demonstrated the effectiveness of a communication support system by developing a voice-driven embodied entrainment character “InterActor”, which automatically generates body movements, such as nodding, based on a user’s speech. As nodding is generally perceived as a positive and an agreeability gesture, the system evaluation in previous studies may have been more favorable. Therefore, in this study, we developed a character that automatically generates non-agreeable reactions, such as “the terrible twos” to examine the relationship with the degree of entrainment. Additionally, the effectiveness of the developed system was evaluated, based on the result of a user test at a science experience event for children as well as a speech experiment.