The goal of Metalogue (Multiperspective Multimodal Dialogue) is to produce a multimodal dialogue system that is able to implement an interactive behaviour that seems natural to users and is flexible enough to exploit the full potential of multimodal interaction. It will be achieved by understanding, controlling and manipulating systems own and users’ cognitive processes. The new dialogue manager will incorporate a cognitive model based on metacognitive skills that will enable planning and deployment of appropriate dialogue strategies. The system will be able to monitor both its own and users' interactive performance, reason about the dialogue progress, guess the users’ knowledge and intentions, and thereby adapt and regulate the dialogue behaviour over time.
The metacognitive capabilities of the Metalogue system will be based on a state-of-the-art approach incorporating multitasking and transfer of knowledge among skills. The models will be implemented in ACT-R, providing a general framework of metacognitive skills.
Metalogue research focuses on educational and coaching situations where negotiation skills play a key role in the decision-making processes. Components and algorithms will be developed, tested and integrated into a prototype platform, which will provide learners with a rich and interactive environment that will help to develop metacognitive skills, support motivation, and stimulate creativity and responsibility in the decision making and argumentation process. The Metalogue system will produce virtual agents capable of engaging in natural interaction through combinations of English, German and Greek, using gestures, mimicry and body language.
It will be deployed in two use-case scenarios: in social educational contexts for training young entrepreneurs and active citizens (Youth Parliament), and in a business education context for training call centre employees to successfully handle their customers. Respectively, Metalogue will have a strong impact on both economic and social levels.
More information at http://www.metalogue.eu