OLGA—a multimodal interactive information assistant

This video is a description and use scenario of an interactive information assistant with both speech and visual direct manipulation interface. The 3D-animated assistant, nicknamed OLGA, is intended to help in situations where people seek information. It is here demonstrated with consumer advice about microwave ovens. The demonstrator is modular and distributed, with separate modules from different partners and computers communicating via a server. The OLGA project is highly interdisciplinary, involving researchers from linguistics, speech technology, graphic illustration and computing science. Possible extensions and other uses of the assistant are demonstrated.