A Natural Language Instructor for pedestrian navigation based in generation by selection

Abstract

In this paper we describe a method for developing a virtual instructor for pedestrian navigation based on real interactions between a human instructor and a human pedestrian. A virtual instructor is an agent capable of fulfilling the role of a human instructor, and its goal is to assist a pedestrian in the accomplishment of different tasks within the context of a real city. The instructor decides what to say using a generation by selection algorithm, based on a corpus of real interactions generated within the world of interest. The instructor is able to react to different requests by the pedestrian. It is also aware of the pedestrian position with a certain degree of uncertainty, and it can use different city landmarks to guide him.