The use of affective and attentive cues in an empathic computer-based Companions

Recently, a number of research projects have been started to create virtual agents that do not just serve as assistants to which tasks may be delegated, but that may even take on the role of a Companion. Such agents require a great deal of social intelligence, such as the ability to detect the user’s affective state and to respond to it in an empathic manner. The objective of our work is to create an empathetic listener that is capable to react on affective and attentive input cues of the user. In particular, we discuss various forms of empathy and how they may be realized based on these cues.