Hablame: A virtual environment for conversation trainning

April 23, 2002
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Halligan 111
Speaker: Sarah Al-Saud and Julene Mazpule
Host: Dr. R. Jacob

Abstract

Learning a new language is a difficult and tedious process. One of the most difficult parts of it is learning how to speak and hold a conversation. Unfortunately native speakers are not always available or willing to help novice speakers. We propose a virtual reality environment in which users can engage in converstions about different topics with english speaking characters. The environment tries to mimic the real world where people can wander around and hold multiple conversations with different people. Our goal is to exploit the naturalness of human communication that takes places through speech, body expressions, etc.