Research & Projects – Verstanden (Understood)

An older person looks at a screen showing a daily planer and a virtual agent.

06/2013 - 07/2014Communication assurance in speech dialogue-based human-technology interaction with an assistance system for people with age-related disabilities (Verstanden)

In the face of ongoing demographic change, technological support for independent living is an important tool for ensuring a high quality of life. The project "VERSTANDEN" aims to evaluate voice interaction with systems for older user groups and to make it more accessible and reliable. In particular, the aspect of ensuring comprehension is considered - how the interaction can be shaped on the system side so that comprehension problems are prevented from the outset, always robustly detected and repaired by the user group and the system.

In addition to the robustness itself, the acceptability of the more robust interaction structures by the target group will also be investigated. The project is embedded in an ongoing cooperation between CITEC and the v. Bodelschwinghschen Stiftungen Bethel on the topic of "Virtual Assistants and their Social Acceptance" (VASA), in which assistance systems are being examined for their suitability and acceptance together with older participants and people with cognitive disabilities. In cooperation between computer scientists and interaction linguists, an autonomous voice dialogue system is being developed that enables daily structuring by calendar. Other planned support functions are voice-controlled reminder assistance and video calling.

Publications

  • Pitsch, K., Yaghoubzadeh, R., & Kopp, S. (2015). Entering Appointments: Flexibility and the Need for Structure? In: GSCL 2015, Essen, S. 140-141. [Online-Volltext]

  • Yaghoubzadeh, R., Pitsch, K., & Kopp, S. (2015). Adaptive Grounding and Dialogue Management for Autonomous Conversational Assistants for Elderly Users. In: IVA 2015, Delft, S. 28-38. [DOI]

  • Henne, M., Kopp, S., & Pitsch, K. (2014). Virtuelle Assistenten als verbindende Schnittstelle zu verschiedenen Unterstützungssystemen. In: Proceedings 7. Deutscher AAL-Kongress 2014, 5 Seiten. [Online-Volltext]

  • Yaghoubzadeh, R., Kramer, M., Pitsch, K., & Kopp, S. (2013). Virtual Agents as Daily Assistants for Elderly or Cognitively Impaired People. In: IVA 2013, S. 79-91. [DOI]

  • Kramer, M., Yaghoubzadeh, R., Kopp, S., & Pitsch, K. (2013). A conversational virtual human as autonomous assistant for elderly and cognitively impaired users? Social acceptability and design considerations. In: INFORMATIK 2013, Workshop "Wer hat Angst vor autonomen Maschinen?", S. 1105-1119. [Online-Volltext]

A project at:

Cluster of Excellence "Cognitive Interaction Technology"  (CITEC, EXC-277), University of Bielefeld.

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Projektseite des CITEC

Funded by:

Wissenschaftliches Vorprojekt

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Project Team

Team

In Kooperation mit:

v. Bodelschwinghsche Stiftung Bethel 

  • Melissa Henne; Corporate Development Unit (Stabsstelle Unternehmensentwicklung)
  • Ulrich Johnigk, Birgit Michels-Riess; Care for the elderly (Altenhilfe)
  • Detlef Reinker, Margit Hullmeine, Christine Schäfer; Bethel.regional
  • Friederike Sickendiek, IT
  • Gerlinde Woyna, Pro.Werk
  • Klaus Pöschel, EvKB

PIKSL-Labor, Düsseldorf

  • Tobias Marczinzik