Designing for Rapport with Virtual Agents in a Simulated Mixed Reality Environment: Results from a Pilot Study with Senior Users in the bewARe Project.

Designing for rapport with virtual agents is one of the key success factors for delivering engaging and motivating virtual experiences. This paper presents the results of the study on rapport with virtual agent "Anna" who acts as a personal virtual trainer in a gamified, simulated mixed reality (MR) environment for physical training of senior trainees with hypertension. The exploratory study with 22 senior participants over 65 years old applied an adapted rapport scale to measure cognitive, affective and interactional rapport. Results from the survey and interviews show that imitating movements of the virtual trainer received highest values and that agent generated behaviour was essential for establishing rapport. The paper explores the relationships between the rapport scores and the perception of senior users of a range of characteristics of the virtual agent such as body, head, hand and facial and verbal expression.