Small Talk
OWL file
http://www.dfki.de/lt/onto/pal/smalltalk.owl
Authors
Franziska Burger, Bernd Kiefer
Short description of ontology
The small talk ontology started as background knowledge for small conversations initiated by the robotic actor of the PAL project. The purpose of these interactions is to start off-activity-talk (OAT, aka. social talk) with the user.
The purpose of this ontology is to provide the data structure specifications for all kinds of OAT related dialogue, which then can be used in later sessions as reference items.
Related work
Burger, F. V. (2016). Agents Sharing Secrets-Self-disclosure in Long-Term Child-Avatar Interaction.
Ontology design
The data for these conversations consists of Starters, Prompts, Disclosures and Closure parts to conduct such a dialogue.
In addition, concepts necessary for conducting less scripted dialogues has been added, like parameters that play a role during OAT (intimacy level, topic, or valence), and concepts such as smalltalk:Liking, to represent preferences uttered by a user during a conversation, but also preferences for the robotic actor, to equip it with a unique personality.
Evaluation and results
The ontology is successfully used in the PAL system and facilitated small talk between the PAL actor and the child.