OLGA - a dialogue system with an animated talking agent

Abstract

T he ob jec t of the O lga projec t is to deve lop an interactive 3D an im ated talkingag ent. A futuristic app lication sce na rio is interactive digital T V , w here the O lgaag ent w ou ld guide na ive users through the variou s service s availab le on thenetw ork. T he current app lication is a con sum er inform ation service for m icrow aveove ns. O lga requ ired the deve lop m ent of a system w ith com pon ents from m an ydifferent fields: m ultim oda l interface s, dialogu e m anag em ent, speec h rec ogn ition ,speec h synthesis, graph ics, an im ation , facilities for direc t m an ipu lation andda taba se hand ling . T o integrate all kno w ledg e sou rce s O lga is im plem ented w ithsepa rate m odu les comm un icating w ith a ce ntral dialogu e interaction m anag er. Inthis pap er, w e m ainly describe the talking anim ated agent and the dialogu em anag er. T here is also a sho rt description of the prelim ina ry speec h rec ogn iserused in the project.