Abstract
Understanding why people treat simple geometric animations like real agent which has intention to interact with people even if its geometry is artificial thing will aid the `agency' problems of human-agent interaction. This paper explores effects of treating simple geometric animations as a real participant to facilitate multi-party conversation in social interaction. Observational study was conducted with groups of two or three persons using simple circle (sociable spotlight) which moves based on dynamic information in the current multi-party conversation, with the goal of discovering how participants are utilizing the behaviors of sociable spotlight as an other party for organizing the conversational sequences in talk-in-interaction. In addition, we motivated to explore how the sociable spotlight is embedded within the organization of conversation and how the user's behaviors are changed according to the sociable spotlight's behaviors by investigate through conversation analysis of a video-recording. Finally, we conclude how the agency of artificial things constructed in multi-party conversation from minimal designing point of view.
