A basic cognitive system for interactive continuous learning of visual concepts

Interactive continuous learning is an important characteristic of a cognitive agent that is supposed to operate and evolve in an everchanging environment. In this paper we present representations and mechanisms that are necessary for continuous learning of visual concepts in dialogue with a tutor. We present an approach for modelling beliefs stemming from multiple modalities and we show how these beliefs are created by processing visual and linguistic information and how they are used for learning. We also present a system that exploits these representations and mechanisms, and demonstrate these principles in the case of learning about object colours and basic shapes in dialogue with the tutor.