Using Virtual Agent for Facilitating Online Questionnaire Surveys

In this paper, we present a novel system, called Formroid, which facilitates answering online questionnaire surveys with the virtual agent technology. For a questionnaire given by an investigator, Formroid commands the virtual agent to ask each question to the respondent. Through conversation with the virtual agent, a respondent can answer the questionnaire. Thus, Formroid transforms the conventional form input into a face-to-face interview conducted by the virtual agent. In this paper, we especially address the design issues of Formroid, and the implementation of prototype system. We also introduce an experiment, where Formroid is extensively used for questionnaire-based assessment of quality of life.