A Model for Multimodal Dialogue System Output Applied to an Animated Talking Head

Abstract

We present a formalism for specifying verbal and non-verbal output from a multimodal dialogue system. The output specification is XML-based and provides information about communicative functions of the output, without detailing the realisation of these functions. The aim is to let dialogue systems generate the same output for a wide variety of output devices and modalities. The formalism was developed and implemented in the multimodal spoken dialogue system AdApt. We also describe how facial gestures in the 3D-animated talking head used within this system are controlled through the formalism.