Title
Passing An Enhanced Turing Test - Interacting With Lifelike Computer Representations Of Specific Individuals
Keywords
Animated pedagogical agents; Automated question-and-answer systems; Chatbots; Dialogue management; Embodied conversational agents
Abstract
This article describes research to build an embodied conversational agent (ECA) as an interface to a question-and-answer (Q/A) system about a National Science Foundation (NSF) program. We call this ECA the LifeLike Avatar, and it can interact with its users in spoken natural language to answer general as well as specific questions about specific topics. In an idealized case, the LifeLike Avatar could conceivably provide a user with a level of interaction such that he or she would not be certain as to whether he or she is talking to the actual person via video teleconference. This could be considered a (vastly) extended version of the seminal Turing test. Although passing such a test is still far off, our work moves the science in that direction. The Uncanny Valley notwithstanding, applications of such lifelike interfaces could include those where specific instructors/caregivers could be represented as stand-ins for the actual person in situations where personal representation is important. Possible areas that come to mind that might benefit from these lifelike ECAs include health-care support for elderly/disabled patients in extended home care, education/training, and knowledge preservation. Another more personal application would be to posthumously preserve elements of the persona of a loved one by family members. We apply this approach to a Q/A system for knowledge preservation and dissemination, where the specific individual who had this knowledge was to retire from the US National Science Foundation. The system is described in detail, and evaluations were performed to determine how well the system was perceived by users.
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Publication Title
Journal of Intelligent Systems
Volume
22
Issue
4
Number of Pages
365-415
Document Type
Review
Personal Identifier
scopus
DOI Link
https://doi.org/10.1515/jisys-2013-0016
Copyright Status
Unknown
Socpus ID
84897405830 (Scopus)
Source API URL
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84897405830
STARS Citation
Gonzalez, Avelino J.; Leigh, Jason; DeMara, Ronald F.; Johnson, Andrew; and Jones, Steven, "Passing An Enhanced Turing Test - Interacting With Lifelike Computer Representations Of Specific Individuals" (2013). Scopus Export 2010-2014. 7767.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/scopus2010/7767