Research and Grant Support

Creating Conversational Agents for Language Training:
Technologies for the Next Generation of Interactive Systems

Supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CDA-9726363.
Summary of Baldi as a language tutor.

Relevant Papers:

Cole, R.A. Carmell, T., Conners, P., Macon, M., Wouters, J., de Villiers, J., Tarachow, A., Massaro, D.W., Cohen, M.M., Beskow, J., Yang, J., Meier, U., Waibel, A., Stone, P., Fortier, G., Davis, A., Soland, C. (1998) Intelligent Animated Agents for Interactive Language Training STiLL - ESCA Workshop on Speech Technology in Language Learning Stockholm, Sweden, May 25-27, 1998.

Cohen, M.M., Beskow, J., and Massaro, D.W. (1998). Recent developments in facial animation: An inside view. AVSP '98 (Dec 4-6, 1998, Sydney, Australia).

Cole, R., Massaro, D. W., de Villiers, J., Rundle, B., Shobaki, K., Wouters, J., Cohen, M. M., Beskow, J., Stone, P., Connors, P., Tarachow, A., & Solcher, D. (1999). New tools for interactive speech and language training: Using animated conversational agents in the classrooms of profoundly deaf children. In Proceedings of ESCA/SOCRATES Workshop on Method and Tool Innovations for Speech Science Education (pp. 45-52). London, UK, April, 1999.

Massaro, D.W., Cohen, M.M., and Beskow, J. (1999). From theory to practice: Rewards and challenges. In Proceedings of the International Conference of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS). San Francisco, CA, August 1999.

Synthesis and Evaluation of Visible Speech

Supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. BCS-9905176.
Progress Report (nsfprog.pdf)

ITR: Creating the Next Generation of Intelligent Animated Conversational Agents

Supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. IIS-0086107

Perception of Visible and Bimodal Speech

Supported by the Public Health Service under Grant No. PHS R01 DC00236
Specific Aims and Progress Report (nidcd.pdf)

Relevant Papers:

Massaro, D.W., & Cole, R. (2000). From "Speech is special" to talking heads in language learning. In Integrating Speech Technology in the (Language Learning and Assistive Interface, University of Abertay Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, August 29-30, 153-161.

Creating and Evaluating Conversational Characters

Supported by cooperative grants from the Intel Corporation, the University of California Digital Media Program. and the University of California-Santa Cruz.

Relevant Papers:

Massaro, D.W., Cohen, M. M., Beskow, J., & Cole, R. A. (2000). Developing and evaluating conversational agents. In J. Cassell, J. Sullivan, S. Prevost, & E. Churchill (Eds.) Embodied conversational agents. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Link to the Perceptual Science Laboratory

Perceptual Science Lab.

Back