Cultural Adaptation in Conversational Agents

2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21500147
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Intelligent informatics
• Research Institution: Seikei University
• Principal Investigator: NAKANO Yukiko 成蹊大学, 理工学部, 准教授 (40422505)
• Project Period (FY): 2009 – 2011
• Keywords: 異文化コミュニケーション / 会話エージェント / 多言語 / HCI

Research Abstract

This project aims at establishing a quantitative model for socio-cultural factors in nonverbal behaviors, and applying it to support cross-cultural communication. In analysis and modeling nonverbal behaviors, we investigated how postures and head nods are different depending on culture, social relationship, and the purpose of conversation such as negotiation, and established a model for predicting these behaviors. Moreover, we built a posture recognition system using a Kinect sensor. We actively promoted international activities by joining an international project and organizing a session in international conferences.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Culture and Social Relationship as Factors of Affecting Communicative Non-verbal Behaviors (2010)
  • Author(s): Afia Akhter Lipi, Yukiko Nakano and Mathias Rehm.
  • Journal Title: 人工知能学会論文誌 Volume: Vol.25 No.6 Pages: 712-722
• [Journal Article] From observation to simulation : generating culture-specific behavior for interactive systems (2009)
  • Author(s): Rehm, M. Nakano, Y. Andre, E. Nishida, T. Bee, N. Endrass, B., Wissner, M. Lip, i A. A., Huang, H.-H.
  • Journal Title: AI & Society Volume: vol.24, no.3 Pages: 267-280
• [Presentation] How Culture and Social Relationship Affect Performing and Perceiving of Postures (2011)
  • Author(s): Afia Akhter Lipi, Yukiko Nakano
  • Organizer: IEEE International Conference on Granular Computing(GrC 2011) Special Session on Social and Cultural Interaction
  • Place of Presentation: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
  • Year and Date: 2011-11-09
• [Presentation] Culture-related Topic Selection in Small Talk Conversations across Germany and Japan (2011)
  • Author(s): Birgit Endrass, Yukiko Nakano, Afia Akhter Lipi, Matthias Rehm, and Elisabeth Andre
  • Organizer: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents(IVA 2011)
  • Place of Presentation: Reykjavik, Iceland
  • Year and Date: 2011-09-15
• [Presentation] How Culture and Social Relationship Affect the Perception of Agent's Nonverbal Behaviors? (2011)
  • Author(s): Afia Akhter Lipi, Fumie Nori, Birgit Endrass, Yukiko Nakano, and Elisabeth Andre
  • Organizer: Workshop on Culturally Motivated Virtual Characters
  • Place of Presentation: Reykjavik, Iceland
  • Year and Date: 2011-09-14
• [Presentation] Cultural Difference in Nonverbal Behaviors in Negotiation Conversations : Towards a Model for Culture-adapted Conversational Agents (2011)
  • Author(s): Fumie Nori, Afia Akhter Lipi, Yukiko Nakano
  • Organizer: 14th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction(HCII2011)
  • Place of Presentation: Orlando, Florida, USA
  • Year and Date: 2011-07-12
• [Presentation] Culture-related differences in aspects of behavior for virtual characters across Germany and Japan (2011)
  • Author(s): Birgit Endrass, Elisabeth Andre, Yukiko Nakano, Matthias Rehm, Afia Akhter Lipi
  • Organizer: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems(AAMAS2011)
  • Place of Presentation: Taipei, Taiwan
  • Year and Date: 2011-05-02
• [Presentation] A Socio-Cultural Model Based on Empirical Data of Cultural and Social Relationship (2010)
  • Author(s): Afia Akhter Lipi, Yukiko Nakano, and Matthias Rehm
  • Organizer: International Workshop on Agents in Cultural Context
  • Place of Presentation: Kyoto
  • Year and Date: 2010-02-22
• [Presentation] Some Pitfalls for Developing Enculturated Conversational Agents (2009)
  • Author(s): Rehm, M, . Andre E., and Nakano, Y.
  • Organizer: 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction(HCII09)
  • Place of Presentation: San Diego, USA
  • Year and Date: 2009-07-23
• [Presentation] Multimodal Corpus Analysis as a Method for Ensuring Cultural Usability of Embodied Conversational Agents (2009)
  • Author(s): Nakano, Y. and Rehm, M.
  • Organizer: 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction(HCII09)
  • Place of Presentation: San Diego, USA
  • Year and Date: 2009-07-23
• [Presentation] A Parameter-based Model for Generating Culturally Adaptive Nonverbal Behaviors in Embodied Conversational Agents (2009)
  • Author(s): Lipi, A. A., Nakano, Y. and Rehm, M.
  • Organizer: 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction(HCII09)
  • Place of Presentation: San Diego, USA
  • Year and Date: 2009-07-22
• [Book] Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, Culturally Aware Agent Communication, in Human-Computer Interaction : The Agency Perspective (2012)
  • Author(s): Matthias Rehm, Yukiko Nakano, Tomoko Koda
  • Total Pages: 411-436
  • Publisher: springer
• [Book] A Socio-cultural Model based on Empirical Data of Cultural and Social Relationships, Culture and Computing : Computing and Communication for Crosscultural Interaction (2010)
  • Author(s): Afia Akhter Lipi, Yukiko Nakano, and Matthias Rehm
  • Total Pages: 71-84
  • Publisher: springer