Enter the World of Ghosts: New Assisting and Entertaining Virtual Agents

As an alternative to fully articulate visual agents much highlighted in recent years this paper presents disembodied, location-specific conversational agents (DELCA) called ‘ghosts’ as a powerful new way of obtaining high quality assistance with less technical requirements. DELCA ghosts combine context specific conversation mediated assistance with an interactive narrative universe designed to promote both pleasant and efficient service. This paper investigates DELCA ghosts through scenarios and examples from ongoing trans-disciplinary work at the IT University of Copenhagen supported by subsequent analysis of specific issues. Finally we will point to future research and perspectives related to the DELCA project.