Towards agent-based crowd simulation in airports using games technology

We adapt popular video games technology for an agent-based crowd simulation in an airport terminal. To achieve this, we investigate the unique traits of airports and implement a virtual crowd by exploiting a scalable layered intelligence technique in combination with physics middleware and a socialforces approach. Our experiments show that the framework runs at interactive frame-rate and evaluate the scalability with increasing number of agents demonstrating navigation behaviour

Out on the town:a Socio-Physical Approach to the Design of a Context-Aware Urban Guide

As urban environments become increasingly hybridized, mixing the social, built, and digital in interesting ways, designing for computing in the city presents new challenges—how do we understand such hybridization, and then respond to it as designers? Here we synthesize earlier work in human-computer interaction, sociology and architecture in order to deliberately influence the design of digital systems with an understanding of their built and social context of use. We propose, illustrate, and evaluate a multidisciplinary approach combining rapid ethnography, architectural analysis, design sketching, and paper prototyping. Following the approach we are able to provide empirically grounded representations of the socio-physical context of use, in this case people socializing in urban spaces. We then use this understanding to influence the design of a context aware system to be used while out on the town. We believe that the approach is of value more generally, particularly when achieving powerfully situated interactions is the design ambition.

Semi-Autonomous Avatars: A New Direction for Expressive User Embodiment

Computer animated characters are rapidly becoming a regular part of our lives. They are starting to take the place of actors in films and television and are now an integral part of most computer games. Perhaps most interestingly in on-line games and chat rooms they are representing the user visually in the form of avatars, becoming our on-line identities, our embodiments in a virtual world. Currently online environments such as “Second Life” are being taken up by people who would not traditionally have considered playing games before, largely due to a greater emphasis on social interaction. These environments require avatars that are more expressive and that can make on-line social interactions seem more like face-to-face conversations. Computer animated characters come in many different forms. Film characters require a substantial amount of off-line animator effort to achieve high levels of quality; these techniques are not suitable for real time applications and are not the focus of this chapter. Non-player characters (typically the bad guys) in games use limited artificial intelligence to react autonomously to events in real time. However avatars are completely controlled by their users, reacting to events solely through user commands. This chapter will discuss the distinction between fully autonomous characters and completely controlled avatars and how the current differentiation may no longer be useful, given that avatar technology may need to include more autonomy to live up to the demands of mass appeal. We will firstly discuss the two categories and present reasons to combine them. We will then describe previous work in this area and finally present our own framework for semi-autonomous avatars

Proceedings of the SAB'06 Workshop on Adaptive Approaches for Optimizing Player Satisfaction in Computer and Physical Games

These proceedings contain the papers presented at the Workshop on Adaptive approaches for Optimizing Player Satisfaction in Computer and Physical Games held at the Ninth international conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB’06): From Animals to Animats 9 in Rome, Italy on 1 October 2006. We were motivated by the current state-of-the-art in intelligent game design using adaptive approaches. Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are mainly focused on generating human-like and intelligent character behaviors. Meanwhile there is generally little further analysis of whether these behaviors contribute to the satisfaction of the player. The implicit hypothesis motivating this research is that intelligent opponent behaviors enable the player to gain more satisfaction from the game. This hypothesis may well be true; however, since no notion of entertainment or enjoyment is explicitly defined, there is therefore little evidence that a specific character behavior generates enjoyable games. Our objective for holding this workshop was to encourage the study, development, integration, and evaluation of adaptive methodologies based on richer forms of humanmachine interaction for augmenting gameplay experiences for the player. We wanted to encourage a dialogue among researchers in AI, human-computer interaction and psychology disciplines who investigate dissimilar methodologies for improving gameplay experiences. We expected that this workshop would yield an understanding of state-ofthe- art approaches for capturing and augmenting player satisfaction in interactive systems such as computer games. Our invited speaker was Hakon Steinø, Technical Producer of IO-Interactive, who discussed applied AI research at IO-Interactive, portrayed the future trends of AI in computer game industry and debated the use of academic-oriented methodologies for augmenting player satisfaction. The sessions of presentations and discussions where classified into three themes: Adaptive Learning, Examples of Adaptive Games and Player Modeling. The Workshop Committee did a great job in providing suggestions and informative reviews for the submissions; thank you! This workshop was in part supported by the Danish National Research Council (project no: 274-05-0511). Finally, thanks to all the participants; we hope you found this to be useful!peer-reviewe

Real Time Animation of Virtual Humans: A Trade-off Between Naturalness and Control

Virtual humans are employed in many interactive applications using 3D virtual environments, including (serious) games. The motion of such virtual humans should look realistic (or ‘natural’) and allow interaction with the surroundings and other (virtual) humans. Current animation techniques differ in the trade-off they offer between motion naturalness and the control that can be exerted over the motion. We show mechanisms to parametrize, combine (on different body parts) and concatenate motions generated by different animation techniques. We discuss several aspects of motion naturalness and show how it can be evaluated. We conclude by showing the promise of combinations of different animation paradigms to enhance both naturalness and control

Multilayered Agency and Religion: A Study of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (1986–1998)

The present thesis examines the core issue of how to understand and situate the agency of a religious actor in International Relations (IR). This is investigated through a case study of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in two comparative policy contexts: agrarian land reform and family planning. The CBCP is a permanent institution within the Catholic Church as a collective of the bishops of the Philippines. The research employs analytic eclecticism as the method to integrate select works from four principal scholars: Colin Wight, Adrian Pabst, Atalia Omer and Mariano Barbato. Wight’s tripartite multilayered framework of agency structures the analysis of the case study; Pabst’s metaphysical political realism is employed to supplement the engagement with the religious traditions of the CBCP; the approach to religious traditions and agency is further strengthened by the adoption of Omer’s arguments for a religious self-identification and non-reductionist approach; and Barbato’s seminal concept of multilayered actorness is repurposed in select instances to show the varied kinds of actor the CBCP occupies within and between policy contexts. The constructed analytically eclectic framework is operationalised in the second part of thesis via the Philippine case study. The present thesis makes several original contributions to research knowledge: a) a new application of analytic eclecticism to the study of religion in IR, b) understanding of a particular religious actor in its local and global dimensions and c) an IR analysis of the CBCP in a time of political transition in the Philippines. Taken together, these contributions advance the IR discourse on religion and agency in new ways

Disruptive Technology: Approaches to Escape a Discontinuous Environment

Disruptive technologies have erased and continue to extinct previously successful industries. Scholars’ studies consider ICT as a major cause for various industries, as, e.g., analogue photography, typewriters, VHS-cassettes and so on. They have become obsolete as its effect. Despite the creation of new industries at the same time, the environment for old industries results frequently in obsolescence. Especially, as research tends to hold, impact on organisations increases, when new technologies effectuate an additional shift in consumer behaviour. Opportunities for established firms become likely discontinuous then. The replication industry of optical discs is a specific industry sector within the wider Home Entertain-ment Industry manufacturing the present dominant design of the physical mass product, DVD and CD. However, ICT-based dematerialised, virtual products threaten the replication industry’s future, which may become obsolete, since more and more consumers adopt virtual downloads as their preference. This paper studies the approaches of selected industry’s incumbents to be innovative themselves to escape their emergent disruptive environment. Based on primary and secondary research, it addresses their adopted opportunities of accessing new growth paths through extended technology management and the development of a future-oriented direction by additional technologies and augmented services to escape the environment of decline and exit. The purpose of the underlying long-term research is to study, how do replicators (as an example for declining industries) respond to the threat of disruptive innovation and whether their (strategic) behaviour may serve as a model for other industries facing similar scenarios. This research is undertaken qualitatively using a single case study from which excerpts are presented. The present findings provide evidence that after a long time of reluctance, replicators have started to develop further resources and capacities to identify new and additional ways supporting them in their struggle for survival. But these findings show as well a pattern that approaches to future orientation may not be sufficient, since 1. They do not resolve the dilemma of competing with products and services committed to the physical place against a shifting consumer behaviour pattern addressing the virtual space. 2. Constraints, like e.g., staff, physical facilities, skills and path-dependent reasons further marginal, or in Abernathy et al.s’ understanding regular innovation or re-engineering fighting against radical innovation by both, technological impact and market linkages (1983, 1984). 3. The established customer-supplier relationships may be of disadvantage, since hindering replicators to have direct access to the point of consumption. These indicators suggest that disruptive innovation will be stronger in the end and many present efforts may be in vain