Are You Not Entertained? Computational Storytelling with Non-Verbal Interaction

Philipp Wicke, Tony Veale

Abstract: We describe the design and implementation of a multi-modal storytelling system. Multiple robots narrate and act out an AI-generated story whose plots can be dynamically altered via non-verbal audience feedback. The enactment and interaction focuses on gestures and facial expression, which are embedded in a computational framework that draws on cognitive-linguistic insights to enrich the storytelling experience. With the absence of in-person user studies in this late breaking research, we present the validity of the separate modules of this project and introduce it to the HRI field.