Conversational Pointing Gestures for Virtual Reality Interaction: Implications from an Empirical Study

Interaction in conversational interfaces strongly relies on the system´s capability to interpret the user´s references to objects via deictic expressions. Deictic gestures, especially pointing gestures, provide a powerful way of referring to objects and places, e.g., when communicating with an embodied conversational agent in a virtual reality environment. We highlight results drawn from a study on pointing and draw conclusions for the implementation of pointing-based conversational interactions in partly immersive virtual reality.