AgentSight is a very useful free utility from Freeman Labs for previewing the available animations and voice characteristics of any Agent character installed on your system. Background Microsoft Agent is a set of programmable software services that supports the presentation of interactive animated characters within the Microsoft Windows interface. Developers can use characters as interactive assistants to introduce, guide, entertain, or otherwise enhance their Web pages or applications in addition to the conventional use of windows, menus, and controls. Microsoft Agent enables software developers and Web authors to incorporate a new form of user interaction, known as conversational interfaces, that leverages natural aspects of human social communication. In addition to mouse and keyboard input, Microsoft Agent includes optional support for speech recognition so applications can respond to voice commands.
Characters can respond using synthesized speech, recorded audio, or text in a cartoon word balloon.