Prototypes of a Migrating Receptionist in Physical and Virtual Space

A migrating receptionist is an intelligent virtual agent (IVA) designed to transfer from one embodiment to another. The embodiment can range from a virtual human-like form to a physical robot. We present a study of the prototyping and evaluation of a migrating virtual receptionist interface. One prototype was made in virtual reality (VR) and one in physical space. The study looks at how to design a migrating virtual receptionist for a department of computer science. The virtual receptionist was designed to migrate from a screen by the entrance, to a mobile phone used while walking, and then to a robot in the coffee area. The evaluation was conducted with 23 participants who interacted with the virtual receptionist using both prototypes. Data was collected with the System Usability Scale (SUS) and Microsoft Reaction Cards. Although the physical space and the virtual space were different, the results of the evaluation are similar. The SUS mean was 83.9 for the physical space and 78.3 for the virtual space. The reaction cards also showed more positive than negative reactions for both prototypes.