Session "SDSs for Children"

types of applications

• Conversation as an end in itself?
• Interactive Storytelling (cmp. Interactive Audiobooks, work by Niklas Röber)
• reflecting the own day (very important for children)
• touch-sensitive picture books ("where is the birdy?", "oh that's the birdy?", "that's not a bird, is it?")
• mediator & tutor for autistic children

dialog-system enabled toys

• include avatars when playing in a group? (problems of group dialogue)
• children talk to teddy bears, why not have the teddy bear answer?
  • toys should be empathetic (empathy is an important learning goal for young children)
• serious games (teaching/tutoring applications)

child-specific requirements

• SDS must be fun to interact with; must be engaging
• child language is different → system's behaviour must be appropriate to the child's abilities (turn-taking, vocabulary, utterances, ...)
  • what is the modelled age of the system? child-like, adult-like?
• improve language competence? → not necessary (according to the parents in the session -- however, they may be slightly non-representative parents)
• improve interaction competence / social competence
  • ok, but playing/interacting with guardians or other children is always much better
• virtual agents vs. real toys
• children are very robust, so errors in system interaction are unlikely to inhibit the child's learning
• some of the requirements are similar to stroke or Alzheimer's patients