A variety of applications may benefit from deploying
embodied conversational agents, either in the form
of animated humanoid avatars or, more simply, as a 'talking head'.
An interesting example is provided by
Signing Avatar,
a system that allows for translating arbitrary text in both spoken
language and sign language for the deaf, presented by animated
humanoid avatars.
Here the use of animated avatars is essential to communicate
with a particular group of users, using the sign language
for the deaf.
