Towards a smiling ECA: studies on mimicry, timing and types of smiles

Smile is one of the most often used nonverbal signals. Depending on when, how and where it is displayed, it may convey various meanings. We believe that introducing the variety of smiles may improve the communicative skills of embodied conversational agents. In this paper we present on-going research on the role of smile in embodied conversational agents. In particular, we analyze the significance of smiling while the agent is either speaking or listening. We also show how it may communicate different messages such as amusement, embarrassment and politeness through different smile morphologies and dynamism.