Spoken Dialogue Technology for Semi-Autonomous Cybernetic Avatars

Abstract

Abstract Speech technology has made significant advances with the introduction of deep learning and large datasets, enabling automatic speech recognition and synthesis at a practical level. Dialogue systems and conversational AI have also achieved dramatic advances based on the development of large language models. However, the application of these technologies to humanoid robots remains challenging because such robots must operate in real time and in the real world. This chapter reviews the current status and challenges of spoken dialogue technology for communicative robots and virtual agents. Additionally, we present a novel framework for the semi-autonomous cybernetic avatars investigated in this study.