CardWorld -- a testbed for modeling natural-language
understanding
Copyright 2010, 2012, 2025 James
A. Mason
CardWorld is my name
for a limited pragmatic domain in which to build and test working
models of language understanding in natural languages such as
English. It consists of simulated playing cards on a
simulated card table, along with one or more simulated "card
agents" with which a human user of CardWorld can converse in
English.
Among other things, the human user can ask the other card agent(s)
to shuffle cards and piles of cards, turn them over, stack
them, and spread them out face up or face down on the card
table. The human user can also directly manipulate
the cards and piles of cards on the table, pointing to
them (by mouse click), moving them (by mouse drag for
cards and mouse shift-drag for piles of cards), and turning
them over (by mouse control-click for cards).
Pointing can also be done by stylus or by touch screen, hardware
permitting. Conversation with the other card agents in
CardWorld can be done by keyboard input and also by voice input
using a program like Dragon Naturally
Speaking.
My hope is for CardWorld to be a continuing project. because
it models aspects of natural-langiage communitation that the currently
popular Large Language Models do not deal with. In particular, CardWorld
models deixis and anaphora in a conversational situation that involves
direct manipulation of objects (cards and piles of cards) on a simulated
card table.
CardWorld1, CardWorld1a, CardWorld2 -- now updated to CardWorld2025 are its
first implementations in Java,
using Augmented Syntax Diagrams (ASD grammars and decision
networks). CardWorld2025
is the latest release, with the most capabilities so far.
Further extensions are planned for CardWorld; see CardWorld Next
Steps below for details.
Links:
last updated 2025 May 30