Queen's University Belfast - Machines will look, listen and talk

A computer system that can carry on a discussion with a human by reacting to signals such as tone of voice and facial expression is being developed by an international team including Queen's University Belfast and Imperial College London. The goal is to build a sensitive artificial listener system that can adapt its response depending on a user's non-verbal reaction. The project, led by German artificial intelligence research centre DFKI, is funded by a EUR2.75 million (£2.2 million) European Commission grant. Roddy Cowie of Queen's School of Psychology predicted that people would be able to talk to computers within 20 years.