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From observation to simulation: generating culture-specific behavior for interactive systems

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Abstract

In this article we present a parameterized model for generating multimodal behavior based on cultural heuristics. To this end, a multimodal corpus analysis of human interactions in two cultures serves as the empirical basis for the modeling endeavor. Integrating the results from this empirical study with a well-established theory of cultural dimensions, it becomes feasible to generate culture-specific multimodal behavior in embodied agents by giving evidence for the cultural background of the agent. Two sample applications are presented that make use of the model and are designed to be applied in the area of coaching intercultural communication.

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Notes

  1. CUlture-adaptive BEhavior Generation.

  2. http://corpus.amiproject.org/ (last visited: 02 April 2009).

  3. http://www.bas.uni-muenchen.de/Bas/BasMultiModaleng.html (last visited: 02 April 2009).

  4. Since various kinds of measures were used in the empirical data, they are normalized into 1 to 7.

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Acknowledgments

The work described in this article is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under research Grant RE 2619/2-1 (CUBE-G) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) under a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (19500104).

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Correspondence to Matthias Rehm.

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Rehm, M., Nakano, Y., André, E. et al. From observation to simulation: generating culture-specific behavior for interactive systems. AI & Soc 24, 267–280 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-009-0216-3

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