Virtual Conversation Partners

Are virtual conversation partners ready for deployment in computer games?

Virtual conversation partners enable humans to interact with computer programs in a similar way as they do when engaging in a natural-language dialog with other humans. The family of virtual conversation partners includes so called chatterbots that emulate remote text-chat partners over the internet, as well as virtual conversational entities with some kind of embodiment - be it an animated 2D cartoon character, a 3D avatar in an online space, a photo-realistic talking head, or even a physical robot.

The objective of the workshop is twofold. In an introductive part we will examine selected application areas, and attendees will become familiar with some standard technologies underlying most of the contemporary chatterbots. This includes excursions on pattern matching, A.L.I.C.E-engines, AIML, utterance planning, and AI-based behaviour modelling of characters.

In the second part we move on to explore potential roles for virtual conversation partners in computer games. Potential roles include but are not limited to: opponents, team mates, companions, on-lookers, commentators, etc. This part is hands-on: workshop attendees work out concrete scenarios and script or even implement sample conversations to demonstrate their emerging ideas. Using evaluation techniques, e.g. Wizzard-of-Oz, will help to assess the ideas with regard to an potential enhancement of gaming experiences.

Organisation

Prof. Thomas Rist

Martin Eisenbarth