Empathy for Max [human-computer interaction]

This paper first describes two independently conducted research strands on affective human-computer interaction: one on an emotion simulation system for an expressive 3D humanoid agent called Max, which was designed at the University of Bielefeld; the other one on a real-time system for empathic (agent) feedback that is based on human emotional states derived from physiological information, and developed at the University of Tokyo and the National Institute of Informatics. Then, the integration of both systems is suggested for the purpose of realizing a highly believable agent with empathic qualities.