Data collection and synchronisation: Towards a Multiperspective multimodal dialogue system with metacognitive abilities

This article describes the data collection system and methods adopted in the METALOGUE (Multiperspective Multimodal Dialogue System with Metacognitive Abilities) project. The ultimate goal of theMETALOGUE project is to develop a multimodal dialogue system with abilities to deliver instructional advice by interacting with humans in a natural way. The data we are collecting will facilitate the development of a dialogue system which will exploit metacognitive reasoning in order to deliver feedback on the user’s performance in debates and negotiations. The initial data collection scenario consists of debates where two students are exchanging views and arguments on a social issue, such as a proposed ban on smoking in public areas, and delivering their presentations in front of an audience. Approximately 3 hours of data has been recorded to date, and all recorded streams have been precisely synchronized and pre-processed for statistical learning. The data consists of audio, video and 3-dimensional skeletal movement information of the participants. This datawill be used in the development of cognitive dialogue and discourse models to underpin educational interventions in public speaking training.