Backchannel strategies for artificial listeners

  • Authors:

  • Ronald Poppe;Khiet P. Truong;Dennis Reidsma;Dirk Heylen

  • Affiliations:

  • Human Media Interaction Group, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands;Human Media Interaction Group, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands;Human Media Interaction Group, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands;Human Media Interaction Group, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

  • Venue:
  • IVA'10 Proceedings of the 10th international conference on Intelligent virtual agents
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

We evaluate multimodal rule-based strategies for backchannel (BC) generation in face-to-face conversations. Such strategies can be used by artificial listeners to determine when to produce a BC in dialogs with human speakers. In this research, we consider features from the speaker's speech and gaze. We used six rule-based strategies to determine the placement of BCs. The BCs were performed by an intelligent virtual agent using nods and vocalizations. In a user perception experiment, participants were shown video fragments of a human speaker together with an artificial listener who produced BC behavior according to one of the strategies. Participants were asked to rate how likely they thought the BC behavior had been performed by a human listener. We found that the number, timing and type of BC had a significant effect on how human-like the BC behavior was perceived.