Empirical data supports the notion that Virtual Humans (or avatars) are one of the best ways to communicate and can even be more effective than real people - live or on video. The reason is based on how the human mind works. According to a a number of studies the reasons are complex, but are based on the fact the people put up a filter when communicating with or just listening to another person. That filter is removed with an avatar. Furthermore, people tune into an avatar more than any other medium. This combination leads to much higher performance by any measure than straight video and often even outshines actual people.

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Virtual Humans and Persuasion: The Effects of Agency and Behavioral Realism

ROSANNA E. GUADAGNO University of Alabama JIM BLASCOVICH University of California, Santa Barbara JEREMY N. BAILENSON Stanford University CADE MCCALL University of California, Santa Barbara
Results supported Blascovich and colleague’s model of social influence within immersive virtual environments. Specifically, the prediction that virtual humans high in behavioral realism would be more influential than those low in behavioral realism was supported…..….
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The Influence of Avatars on Online Consumer Shopping Behavior

Martin Holzwarth, Chris Janiszewski, & Marcus M. Neumann An impediment to Web-based retail sales is the impersonal nature of Web-based shopping. A solution to this problem is to use an avatar to deliver product information. An avatar is a graphic representation that can be animated by means of computer technology. Study 1 shows that using an avatar sales agent leads to more satisfaction with the retailer, a more positive attitude toward the product, and a greater purchase intention. Study 2 shows that an attractive avatar is a more effective sales agent at moderate levels of product involvement, but an expert avatar is a more effective sales agent at high levels of product involvement
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Sample-Based Talking-Head Synthesis

Eric Cosatto The introduction motivates the use of talking-heads in computer user interfaces using several areas of application to illustrate the importance and the potential benefits of this technology.
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The Stanford Study , The Benefits of Interactive Online Characters

Byron Reeves, Center for the Study of Language and Information Stanford University

Research about interactive characters suggests substantial opportunities for them to enhance online experiences. This paper is a brief summary of the role that interactive online characters can play in automated teaching and commerce applications. The paper begins with a brief review of major conclusions from psychological research that has examined human responses to interactive technology. Subsequently, important benefits of interactive character interfaces are reviewed as they apply to online learning and business.    View the complete article

Mehrabian's communication research Professor Albert Mehrabian's communications model

Mehrabian established this classic statistic for the effectiveness of spoken communications:

• 7% of meaning is in the words that are spoken.
• 38% of meaning is paralinguistic (the way that the words are said).
• 55% of meaning is in facial expression.

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Conversational Sales Assistant for Online Shopping

Margo Budzikowska, Joyce Chai, Sunil Govindappa, Veronika Horvath, Nanda Kambhatla, Nicolas Nicolov & Wlodek Zadrozny Conversational Machines Group IBM T. J. Watson Research Center Websites of businesses should accommodate both customer needs and business requirements. Traditional menu-driven navigation and key word search do not allow users to describe their intentions precisely. Access to information using natural language dialog. User studies show significantly reduced length of interactions in terms of time and number of clicks in finding products. The core dialog engine is easily adaptable to other domains.
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