conversational character Papers

In this paper, we argue for embodied conversational characters as the logical extension of the metaphor of human – computer interaction as a conversation. We argue that the only way to fully model the richness of human face-to-face communication is to rely on conversational analysis that describes sets of conversational behaviors as fulfilling conversational functions, both interactional and propositional. We demonstrate how to implement this approach in Rea, an embodied conversational agent that is capable... Read more

In this paper we describe the computational and architectural requirements for systems which support real-time multimodal interaction with an embodied conversational character. We argue that the three primary design drivers are real-time multithreaded entrainment, processing of both interactional and propositional information, and an approach based on a functional understanding of human face-to-face conversation. We then present an architecture which meets these requirements and an initial conversational character that we have developed who is capable of... Read more

The Olga project has developed an animated agent interface for information services. The interface combines a graphical interface, spoken dialogue and an animated 3D ‘human-like’ character for multimodal interaction with users. The interaction is intelligently managed using techniques derived from spoken dialogue but extended for the graphical modality. The Olga agent is innovative in combining an interactive spoken dialogue system with a 3-D animated character using lip-synchronized synthetic speech and gesturing. Particular attention has been... Read more

In the paper "Animated Conversation: Rule-Based Generation of Facial Expression, Gesture and Spoken Intonation for Multiple Conversational Agents", we describe an implemented system which automatically generates and animates conversations between multiple human-like agents with appropriate and synchronized speech, intonation, facial expressions, and hand gestures. Conversations are created by a dialogue planner that produces the text as well as the intonation of the utterances. The speaker/listener relationship, the text, and the intonation in turn drive facial... Read more