The thesis explores the trend in recent years by HCI designers to create an interface which is increasingly more anthropomorphic in nature, due to advances in computer graphics and interface technologies. The thesis has researched the effects of one such manifestation of this anthropomorphic trend on the human user, which embodies the human persona, in the form of embodied agents. The thesis is anchored in the growing area of human-agent interaction studies; and how the agent's appearance in terms of their visual cues (i.e. gender, ethnicity, realism, and attractiveness levels), affects the human user interacting with these artificial entities. The aim of this thesis is to explore how the agents' visual appearance can elicit change in the user's perception and behaviour, in order to improve human-agent design, and the interaction experience for the user. The thesis extends HCI studies investigating the effect of embodied agents, by highlighting the effect of the attractiveness stereotype which can elicit various impressions, stereotypes and behavioural changes within the human user. The thesis results demonstrate that attractive agents were perceived and evaluated more positively, as well being more persuasive than the unattractive agents. Hence, the agents' attractiveness was the main visual cue which played a major role in affecting the participants' opinion and behaviour towards the agents. The thesis advances the current understanding of CASA, by providing evidence to suggest that although users may respond socially to agents; this human-agent experience is not always equal to human-human experience. The thesis concludes by stating that the CASA methodology and Media Equation require some modification and needs to be adapted when applied to human-agent interaction, and especially within the interaction-based context.

Prevention is a central tenet of modern healthcare. New ways of informing, educating, and allowing patients to keep track of their health are continually developing. Integrating technology that bridges the gap between healthcare providers and their patients is essential in today's digital age. One emerging idea is the use of home healthcare embodied agents. Embodied agents are conservational interfaces that can interact and look like human beings. They can exhibit both verbal and non-verbal language cues and be capable of having a natural conversation. This kind of technology could help both patients and healthcare providers by giving patients a helpful assistant that can educate and take care of particular healthcare needs through conversations with the patient. This could potentially improve patient outcomes, thereby reducing trips to the healthcare provider's office and relieving the burden on physicians and other healthcare providers. This research will focus on home healthcare embodied agents' priorities and the opportunities that this technology can present. A literature review was done to examine the current use of embodied agents in home healthcare settings to establish their present capabilities and applications. Additionally, the strategies/techniques used by home healthcare workers interacting with patients were investigated. By examining the provider-patient relationship and the use of home healthcare embodied agents in tandem, related findings were identified and potential gaps in current research were found that may help direct future exploration.

Embodied agents are agents acting in the physical world, such as persons, robots, unmanned air or ground vehicles and so on. These types of agents are subject to spatio-temporal constraints, which do not exist for agents acting in a virtual environment. The movement of embodied agents is limited by obstacles and maximum velocity, while their communication is limited by the transmission range of their wireless devices. This dissertation presents contributions to the techniques of coalition formation and teamwork coordination for embodied agents. We considered embodied agents in three different settings, each of them representative of a class of practical applications. First, we study coalition formation in the one dimensional world of vehicles driving on a highway. We assume that vehicles can communicate over short distances and carry agents which can advise the driver on convoy formation decisions. We introduce techniques which allow vehicles to influence the speed of the convoys, and show that this yields convoys which have a higher utility for the participating vehicles. Second, we address the problem of coalition formation in the two dimensional world. The application we consider is a disaster response scenario. The agents are forming coalitions through a multi-issue negotiation with spatio-temporal components where the coalitions maintain a set of commitments towards participating agents. Finally, we discuss a scenario where embodied agents form coalitions to optimally address dynamic, non-deterministic, spatio-temporal tasks. The application we consider is firefighters acting in a disaster struck city.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Human-looking computer interfaces, including humanoid robots and animated humans, may elicit in their users eerie feelings. This effect, often called the uncanny valley, emphasizes our heightened ability to distinguish between the human and merely humanlike using both perceptual and cognitive approaches. Although reactions to uncanny characters are captured more accurately with emotional descriptors (e.g., eerie and creepy) than with cognitive descriptors (e.g., strange), and although previous studies suggest the psychological processes underlying the uncanny valley are more perceptual and emotional than cognitive, the deep roots of the concept of humanness imply the application of category boundaries and cognitive dissonance in distinguishing among robots, androids, and humans. First, laddering interviews (N = 30) revealed firm boundaries among participants’ concepts of animated, robotic, and human. Participants associated human traits like soul, imperfect, or intended exclusively with humans, and they simultaneously devalued the autonomous accomplishments of robots (e.g., simple task, limited ability, or controlled). Jerky movement and humanlike appearance were associated with robots, even though the presented robotic stimuli were humanlike. The facial expressions perceived in robots as improper were perceived in animated characters as mismatched. Second, association model testing indicated that the independent evaluation based on the developed indices is a viable quantitative technique for the laddering interview. Third, from the interviews several candidate items for the eeriness index were validated in a large representative survey (N = 1,311). The improved eeriness index is nearly orthogonal to perceived humanness (r = .04). The improved indices facilitate plotting relations among rated characters of varying human likeness, enhancing perspectives on humanlike robot design and animation creation.