Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author

The question motivating this review paper is, how can computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn- ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory, and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in- teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that, as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency. Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip- ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in- teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity

A framework for different levels of integration of computational models into web-based virtual patients

BACKGROUND: Virtual patients are increasingly common tools used in health care education to foster learning of clinical reasoning skills. One potential way to expand their functionality is to augment virtual patients’ interactivity by enriching them with computational models of physiological and pathological processes. OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of this paper was to propose a conceptual framework for the integration of computational models within virtual patients, with particular focus on (1) characteristics to be addressed while preparing the integration, (2) the extent of the integration, (3) strategies to achieve integration, and (4) methods for evaluating the feasibility of integration. An additional goal was to pilot the first investigation of changing framework variables on altering perceptions of integration. METHODS: The framework was constructed using an iterative process informed by Soft System Methodology. The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) initiative has been used as a source of new computational models. The technical challenges associated with development of virtual patients enhanced by computational models are discussed from the perspectives of a number of different stakeholders. Concrete design and evaluation steps are discussed in the context of an exemplar virtual patient employing the results of the VPH ARCH project, as well as improvements for future iterations. RESULTS: The proposed framework consists of four main elements. The first element is a list of feasibility features characterizing the integration process from three perspectives: the computational modelling researcher, the health care educationalist, and the virtual patient system developer. The second element included three integration levels: basic, where a single set of simulation outcomes is generated for specific nodes in the activity graph; intermediate, involving pre-generation of simulation datasets over a range of input parameters; advanced, including dynamic solution of the model. The third element is the description of four integration strategies, and the last element consisted of evaluation profiles specifying the relevant feasibility features and acceptance thresholds for specific purposes. The group of experts who evaluated the virtual patient exemplar found higher integration more interesting, but at the same time they were more concerned with the validity of the result. The observed differences were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: This paper outlines a framework for the integration of computational models into virtual patients. The opportunities and challenges of model exploitation are discussed from a number of user perspectives, considering different levels of model integration. The long-term aim for future research is to isolate the most crucial factors in the framework and to determine their influence on the integration outcome

Design Concepts for Automating Maintenance Instructions

This research task was performed under the Technology for Readiness and Sustainment (TRS) contract (F33615-99-D-6001) for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Sustainment Logistics Branch (HESS) at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. The period of performance spanned one year starting 29 January 1999. The objective of this task was to develop and demonstrate a framework that can support the automated validation and verification of aircraft maintenance Technical Orders (TOs). The research team examined all stages ofTO generation to determine which tasks most warranted further research. From that investigation, validation and verification of appropriate, safe, and correct procedure steps emerged as the primary research target. This process would be based on available computer-aided design (CAD) data, procedure step ordering from existing sources, and human models. This determination was based on which tasks could yield the greatest impact on the authoring process and offer the greatest potential economic benefits. The team then developed a research roadmap and outlined specific technologies to be addressed in possible subsequent Air Force research tasks. To focus on the potential technology integration of the validation and verification component into existing or future TO generation procedures, we defined a demonstration scenario. Using the Front Uplock Hook assembly from an F/A-18 as the subject, we examined task procedure steps and failures that could be exposed by automated validation tools. These included hazards to personnel, damage to equipment, and incorrect disassembly order. Using the Parameterized Action Representation (PAR) developed on previous projects for actions and equipment behaviors, we characterized procedure steps and their positive and negative consequences. Finally, we illustrated a hypothetical user interface extension to a typical Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) authoring system to demonstrate how this process might appear to the TO author

A review of interactive narrative systems and technologies: a training perspective

As an emerging form of digital entertainment, interactive narrative has attracted great attention of researchers over the past decade. Recently, there is an emerging trend to apply interactive narrative for training and simulation. An interactive narrative system allows players to proactively interact with simulated entities in a virtual world and have the ability to alter the progression of a storyline. In simulation-based training, the use of an interactive narrative system enables the possibility to offer engaging, diverse and personalized narratives or scenarios for different training purposes. This paper provides a review of interactive narrative systems and technologies from a training perspective. Specifically, we first propose a set of key requirements in developing interactive narrative systems for simulation-based training. Then we review nine representative existing systems with respect to their system architectures, features and related mechanisms. To examine their applicability to training, we investigate and compare the reviewed systems based on the functionalities and modules that support the proposed requirements. Furthermore, we discuss some open research issues on future development of interactive narrative technologies for training applications

A review of interactive narrative systems and technologies: a training perspective

As an emerging form of digital entertainment, interactive narrative has attracted great attention of researchers over the past decade. Recently, there is an emerging trend to apply interactive narrative for training and simulation. An interactive narrative system allows players to proactively interact with simulated entities in a virtual world and have the ability to alter the progression of a storyline. In simulation-based training, the use of an interactive narrative system enables the possibility to offer engaging, diverse and personalized narratives or scenarios for different training purposes. This paper provides a review of interactive narrative systems and technologies from a training perspective. Specifically, we first propose a set of key requirements in developing interactive narrative systems for simulation-based training. Then we review nine representative existing systems with respect to their system architectures, features and related mechanisms. To examine their applicability to training, we investigate and compare the reviewed systems based on the functionalities and modules that support the proposed requirements. Furthermore, we discuss some open research issues on future development of interactive narrative technologies for training applications

Rich Socio-Cognitive Agents for Immersive Training Environments: Case of NonKin Village

Demand is on the rise for scientifically based human-behavior models that can be quickly customized and inserted into immersive training environments to recreate a given society or culture. At the same time, there are no readily available science model-driven environments for this purpose (see survey in Sect. 2). In researching how to overcome this obstacle, we have created rich (complex) socio-cognitive agents that include a large number of social science models (cognitive, sociologic, economic, political, etc) needed to enhance the realism of immersive, artificial agent societies. We describe current efforts to apply model-driven development concepts and how to permit other models to be plugged in should a developer prefer them instead. The current, default library of behavioral models is a metamodel, or authoring language, capable of generating immersive social worlds. Section 3 explores the specific metamodels currently in this library (cognitive, socio-political, economic, conversational, etc.) and Sect. 4 illustrates them with an implementation that results in a virtual Afghan village as a platform-independent model. This is instantiated into a server that then works across a bridge to control the agents in an immersive, platform-specific 3D gameworld (client). Section 4 also provides examples of interacting in the resulting gameworld and some of the training a player receives. We end with lessons learned and next steps for improving both the process and the gameworld. The seeming paradox of this research is that as agent complexity increases, the easier it becomes for the agents to explain their world, their dilemmas, and their social networks to a player or trainee

Narrative balance management in an Intelligent biosafety training application for improving user performance

The use of three-dimensional virtual environments in training applications supports the simulation of complex scenarios and realistic object behaviour. While these environments have the potential to provide an advanced training experience to students, it is difficult to design and manage a training session in real time due to the number of parameters to pay attention to: timing of events, difficulty, user’s actions and their consequences or eventualities are some examples. For that purpose, we have extended our virtual Bio-safety Laboratory application used for training biohazard procedures with a Narrative Manager. The Narrative Manager controls the simulation deciding which events will take place in the simulation, and when, by controlling the narrative balance of the session. Our hypothesis is that the Narrative Manager allows us to increase the number of tasks for the user to solve and, due to balancing difficulty and intensity, it keeps the user interested in training. When evaluating our system we observed that the Narrative Manager effectively introduces more tasks for the user to solve, and despite that, is accepted by the users as more interesting and not harder than an identical system without a Narrative Manager. Also, a knowledge test demonstrated better results in users’ interest and learning output in the narrative condition