Stagecraft For Scientists: Exploring Novel Interaction Formats For Virtual Co-Presenter Agents

Our research explores the development of new interaction formats for oral presentations that leverage a life-sized virtual agent that co-delivers a scientific talk with a human presenter. We developed a taxonomy of 36 novel interaction formats as well as 37 roles the agent can take on in co-presentations. We evaluated the impact of these formats and roles by selecting 10 from the taxonomy and recording brief presentations on the same topic using the different formats. Judges ranked dynamic agent roles higher on engagement and rated non-standard interaction formats no lower on appropriateness, compared to standard turn-taking co-presentations.