Conversations with computers
A computer system that can carry on a discussion with a human being by reacting to signals such as tone of voice and facial expression is under development.
A computer system that can carry on a discussion with a human being by reacting to signals such as tone of voice and facial expression, is being developed by an international team including Queen’s University Belfast.
Known as SEMAINE, the project will build a Sensitive Artificial Listener (SAL) system, which will perceive a human user’s facial expression, gaze, and voice and then engage with the user. When engaging with a human, the SAL will be able to adapt its own performance and pursue different actions, depending on the non-verbal behaviour of the user.
SEMAINE is led by DFKI, the German centre for research on Artificial Intelligence. Other partners are Imperial College, London, the University of Paris 8, the University of Twente in Holland, and the Technical University of Munich.
The European Commission awarded the project a grant of €2.75m after it was ranked first out of 143 bids for medium-sized projects in the area of cognitive systems and robotics.
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