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the module dedicated to ECA, if the system is visually represented by an
avatar, and by the module dedicated to multimodal content presentation (see
Chapter 9). The other results of dialogue management are the updating of
mentioned resources, especially the dialogue history which can actually have
a structure allowing it to link utterances to each other, and also objects and the
world in which the task is carried out, for example if the system has to modify
one of these objects.
The goal of this module, at the heart of the system, is to make a decision
which, on the one hand, will go in the direction of a natural dialogue with
the user (we return here to natural dialogue in natural language) and, on the
other hand, which manifests a perceptible persona to the user that is visible
in the semantic content uttered and the method of its transmission. One of
the system's roles is to be cooperative, and the modeling of this aspect is an
especially important challenge, at least for closed domain systems such as the
system covering train timetable information. We will thus explore the taking
into account of natural and cooperating aspects in MMD (section 8.1) and
then the technical aspects of dialogue management with a few approaches and
challenges (section 8.2).
8.1. Natural and cooperative aspects of dialogue management
8.1.1. Common goal and cooperation
A natural dialogue is first defined as a discourse, that is a series of
utterances creating a consistent whole which holds water. It is also defined as
a finalized and collaborative activity [MCT 04]. The first term highlights the
goals which the speaker and hearer have in common, and in the case of a
finalized dialogue, the task to be solved. This is the goal which will spur
planning, that is the determining of plans, and thus utterances, to achieve a
goal. When obstacles appear, it is because there is a missing element that
prevents the hearer and speaker from achieving their goal. The second term
highlights cooperation, that is the general principle stating the speaker and
hearer are trying to help each other rather than be at odds and put the dialogue
in peril. To have a dialogue, is to do everything to continue having a dialogue,
as long as the goal has not been reached. This notion of cooperation which
can at first seem rather abstract has been the focus of many research studies
trying to deduce rules on which a dialogue manager could rely.
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