Work

Conversing with Objects toward Fluid Human and Artificial Identities during Life Transitions

Year: 2026

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: People's identities change during life transitions, e.g., studying abroad. They bring everyday objects that embody memories and reflect their identities during such moves. To assist in these transitions, we ask how people's human identities could be influenced by their objects through an artificial agent. This paper presents an exploratory research-through-design study around how people undergoing life transitions experience conversing with their everyday objects through a chatbot. Drawing on a two-week field deployment and interviews with 12 participants, we contribute (1) a conceptualization of 'trans-embodiment' describing the asynchronous imagination of object and human identities on the chatbot, (2) empirical evidence of the resulting emotional and reflective experiences, and (3) three types of object identities for designing conversational agents that role-play objects. Our contributions sum up to triangulating human-agent-object identity as trans-embodiment in supporting life transitions.

Source: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

DOI: 10.1145/3772318.3790474

Authors: Yuhui Xu, Minha Lee, Stephan Wensveen, Mahla Alizadeh, Mathias Funk

Institutions: Eindhoven University of Technology, University of Siegen

Language: English

Topic: Innovative Human-Technology Interaction

Subfield: Human-Computer Interaction

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: China Scholarship Council

Award: G5155186168