Universität Bielefeld - Sonderforschungsbereich 360
Gandalf: A Communicative Humanoid Capable of
Real-time Face-to-Face Interaction
Dr. Kristinn R.
Thórisson, Wizard Group, LEGO Digital, Denmark
Abstract
Gandalf is a fully autonomous, humanoid agent that perceives a user's
multimodal acts in real-time (speech, prosody, manual gesture, body
language, gaze) and generates appropriate multimodal responses to
these (speech, gaze, facial & manual gesture & head movement).
Gandalf has knowledge about the solar system and can travel to and
tell users about the planets with speech and gesture. Gandalf
demonstrates ideas about co-spatial, co-temporal dialogue in a
coherent framework which enables the production of overlapping
reactive and reflective behaviors and planning of communicative acts
that span intervals analogous to those found in human dialogue, from
1/6th of a second up to several seconds. Gandalf has been tested in
interaction with humans and shown to be capable of supporting and
sustaining multimodal, situated, real-time dialogue.
Bio
Dr. Kristinn R. Thorisson is a research scientist at LEGO, where he
holds the position of Chief Software Architect in the Wizard Group of
the newly- established LEGO Digital. Before joining LEGO, Kris has
worked on diverse projects such as NASA's teleoperation program, human
factors at Wang Computers and on the development of high-fidelity
simulators for operators of nuclear power plants. Kris' background
also includes artistic creations; he has recorded and produced several
albums with various artists in Iceland, and his artwork has been shown
at public exhibitions. Kris has degrees in cognitive psychology,
ergonomics and engineering psychology, and a Ph.D. in Media Arts &
Sciences from the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, U.S.A. Currently his interest lies in creating life-like
computer controlled characters capable of face-to-face dialogue.
Anke Weinberger, 1997-11-12