conversational agent Papers

The aim of this paper is to explore commercial applications of chatbots, as well as to propose several measurement metrics to evaluate performance, usability and overall quality of an embodied conversational agent. On the basis of these metrics we examine existing Polish-speaking commercial chatbots that a) work in the B2C sector, b) reach the widest possible range of users, and c) are presumably the most advanced commercial deployments of their creators. We analyse various aspects... Read more

We address the question of how narrative analysis can positively affect the design of technologies. After discussing theory and applications in the literature, we apply narrative analysis to the design of the library’s online public access catalogue (OPAC) while alluding to pre-existing fictional and reality-based storytelling prototypes. Read more

In the last years we have developed a platform for the realization of embodied (conversational) agents, in a distributed logic programming framework. In this paper we will present an overview of our work, by discussing the requirements that acted as our guidelines for design decisions during development, some of the applications that have served as target demonstrators for developing and testing new functionality, and the (distributed logic programming) technology which we used for the realization of the platform... Read more

Embodied conversational agents (ECAs) are designed to provide natural and intuitive communication with a human user. One major current topic in agent design consequently is to enhance their believability, often by incorporating internal models of emotions or motivations. As psychological theories often lack the necessary details for direct implementation, many agent modelers currently rely on models that are rather marginal in current psychological research, or models that are created ad hoc with little theoretical and... Read more

We present a novel approach for creating intelligent conversational agents based on a “schizophrenic” model implemented using the EVA (Evolutionary Virtual Agent) nano-agent architecture. The Ms House experiment developed using this approach is compared with Eliza and the Alice chatterbot. Read more

This paper describes the design, implementation, and use of an agent architecture that has been deployed in Alelo, Inc.’s language and culture training systems, which offer practical training for foreign language skills and intercultural competence. These agents support real-time conversation in the language of interest (Dari, Pashto, Arabic, French, and others), using automatic speech recognition and immersive simulation technologies. In earlier work, we developed a number of agent-based language and culture trainers, based on the... Read more

Embodied conversational agents may take on a diversity of roles in learning and advisory scenarios including virtual teachers, advisors, learning companions, and autonomous actors in educational role play. They promote learner motivation, engagement, and self-confidence, and may help prevent and overcome negative affective states of learners, such as frustration and fear of failure. The chapter will provide guidelines and approved methods for the development of animated pedagogical agents including the extraction of multimodal tutorial... Read more

This paper seeks to investigate current development and applications of these systems worldwide, while focusing on their availability in Canadian libraries. It aims to argue that it is both timely and conceivable for Canadian libraries to consider adopting conversational agents to enhance – not replace – face-to-face human interaction. Potential users include library web site tour guides, automated virtual reference and readers' advisory librarians, and virtual story-tellers. To provide background and justification for this argument,... Read more

Unit selection speech synthesis has reached high levels of naturalness and intelligibility for neutral read aloud speech. However, synthetic speech generated using neutral read aloud data lacks all the attitude, intention and spontaneity associated with everyday conversations. Unit selection is heavily data dependent and thus in order to simulate human conversational speech, or create synthetic voices for believable virtual characters, we need to utilise speech data with examples of how people talk rather than how... Read more

Elckerlyc is a BML Realizer for generating multimodal verbal and nonverbal behavior for Virtual Humans (VHs). The main characteristics of Elckerlyc are that (1) it is designed specifically for continuous interaction with tight temporal coordination between the behavior of a VH and its interaction partner; (2) it provides a mix between the precise temporal and spatial control offered by procedural animation and the physical realism of physical simulation; and (3) it is designed to be... Read more