Talking to an android: Meet ERICA, she wants to listen to you

Now a research team from Kyoto University, Osaka University, and the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute, or ATR, have significantly upgraded the interaction system for conversational android ERICA, giving her even greater dialog skills. ERICA is an android created by Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University and ATR, specifically designed for natural conversation through incorporation of human-like facial expressions and gestures. The research team demonstrated the updates during a symposium at the National Museum of Emerging Science in Tokyo. "When we talk to one another, it's never a simple back and forward progression of information," states Tatsuya Kawahara of Kyoto University's Graduate School of Informatics, and an expert in speech and audio processing. We express agreement by nodding or saying'uh-huh' to maintain the momentum of conversation.