832 research outputs found
Agents for educational games and simulations
This book consists mainly of revised papers that were presented at the Agents for Educational Games and Simulation (AEGS) workshop held on May 2, 2011, as part of the Autonomous Agents and MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS) conference in Taipei, Taiwan. The 12 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized topical sections on middleware applications, dialogues and learning, adaption and convergence, and agent applications
Autonomous Motion Planning for Avatar Limbs
In this work, a new algorithm for autonomous avatar motion is presented. The new algorithm is based in the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) and an appropriate ontology. It uses a novel approach for calculating the motion sequence planning for the different avatar limbs: legs or arms. First, the algorithm uses the information stored in the ontology concerning the avatar structure and the Degrees Of Freedom (DOFs) to obtain the basic actions for motion planning. Second, this information is used to perform the growth process in the RRT algorithm. Then, all this information is used to produce planning. The plans are generated by a random search for possible motions that respect the structural restrictions of the avatar on kinesiology studies. To avoid a big configuration space search, exploration, exploitation, and hill climbing are used in order to obtain motion plans
The Rocketbox Library and the Utility of Freely Available Rigged Avatars
As part of the open sourcing of the Microsoft Rocketbox avatar library for research and academic purposes, here we discuss the importance of rigged avatars for the Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR, AR) research community. Avatars, virtual representations of humans, are widely used in VR applications. Furthermore many research areas ranging from crowd simulation to neuroscience, psychology, or sociology have used avatars to investigate new theories or to demonstrate how they influence human performance and interactions. We divide this paper in two main parts: the first one gives an overview of the different methods available to create and animate avatars. We cover the current main alternatives for face and body animation as well introduce upcoming capture methods. The second part presents the scientific evidence of the utility of using rigged avatars for embodiment but also for applications such as crowd simulation and entertainment. All in all this paper attempts to convey why rigged avatars will be key to the future of VR and its wide adoption
Metaverse: A Vision, Architectural Elements, and Future Directions for Scalable and Realtime Virtual Worlds
With the emergence of Cloud computing, Internet of Things-enabled
Human-Computer Interfaces, Generative Artificial Intelligence, and
high-accurate Machine and Deep-learning recognition and predictive models,
along with the Post Covid-19 proliferation of social networking, and remote
communications, the Metaverse gained a lot of popularity. Metaverse has the
prospective to extend the physical world using virtual and augmented reality so
the users can interact seamlessly with the real and virtual worlds using
avatars and holograms. It has the potential to impact people in the way they
interact on social media, collaborate in their work, perform marketing and
business, teach, learn, and even access personalized healthcare. Several works
in the literature examine Metaverse in terms of hardware wearable devices, and
virtual reality gaming applications. However, the requirements of realizing the
Metaverse in realtime and at a large-scale need yet to be examined for the
technology to be usable. To address this limitation, this paper presents the
temporal evolution of Metaverse definitions and captures its evolving
requirements. Consequently, we provide insights into Metaverse requirements. In
addition to enabling technologies, we lay out architectural elements for
scalable, reliable, and efficient Metaverse systems, and a classification of
existing Metaverse applications along with proposing required future research
directions
Analysis domain model for shared virtual environments
The field of shared virtual environments, which also
encompasses online games and social 3D environments, has a
system landscape consisting of multiple solutions that share great functional overlap. However, there is little system interoperability between the different solutions. A shared virtual environment has an associated problem domain that is highly complex raising difficult challenges to the development process, starting with the architectural design of the underlying system. This paper has two main contributions. The first contribution is a broad domain analysis of shared virtual environments, which enables developers to have a better understanding of the whole rather than the part(s). The second contribution is a reference domain model for discussing and describing solutions - the Analysis Domain Model
Classroom Simulation for Trainee Teachers Using 3D Virtual Environments and Simulated Smartbot Student Behaviours
his thesis consists of an analysis of a classroom simulation using a Second Life (SL) experiment that aims to investigate the teaching impact on smartbots (virtual students) from trainee teacher avatars with respect to interaction, simulated behaviour, and observed teaching roles. The classroom-based SL experimentsâ motivation is to enable the trainee teacher to acquire the necessary skills and experience to manage a real classroom environment through simulations of a real classroom. This type of training, which is almost a replica of the real-world experience, gives the trainee teacher enough confidence to become an expert teacher. In this classroom simulation, six trainee teachers evaluated the SL teaching experience by survey using qualitative and quantitative methods that measured interaction, simulated behaviour, and safety. Additionally, six observers evaluated trainee teachersâ performance according to a set of teaching roles and roleplay approaches. The experiment scenario was set up between smartbots, trainee teacher avatars, and observer avatars in the virtual classroom, where smartbots are intelligent agents managing SL bots, and where groups are similar to one another but are under programming control.Saudi Embassy in Londo
The Metaverse: Survey, Trends, Novel Pipeline Ecosystem & Future Directions
The Metaverse offers a second world beyond reality, where boundaries are
non-existent, and possibilities are endless through engagement and immersive
experiences using the virtual reality (VR) technology. Many disciplines can
benefit from the advancement of the Metaverse when accurately developed,
including the fields of technology, gaming, education, art, and culture.
Nevertheless, developing the Metaverse environment to its full potential is an
ambiguous task that needs proper guidance and directions. Existing surveys on
the Metaverse focus only on a specific aspect and discipline of the Metaverse
and lack a holistic view of the entire process. To this end, a more holistic,
multi-disciplinary, in-depth, and academic and industry-oriented review is
required to provide a thorough study of the Metaverse development pipeline. To
address these issues, we present in this survey a novel multi-layered pipeline
ecosystem composed of (1) the Metaverse computing, networking, communications
and hardware infrastructure, (2) environment digitization, and (3) user
interactions. For every layer, we discuss the components that detail the steps
of its development. Also, for each of these components, we examine the impact
of a set of enabling technologies and empowering domains (e.g., Artificial
Intelligence, Security & Privacy, Blockchain, Business, Ethics, and Social) on
its advancement. In addition, we explain the importance of these technologies
to support decentralization, interoperability, user experiences, interactions,
and monetization. Our presented study highlights the existing challenges for
each component, followed by research directions and potential solutions. To the
best of our knowledge, this survey is the most comprehensive and allows users,
scholars, and entrepreneurs to get an in-depth understanding of the Metaverse
ecosystem to find their opportunities and potentials for contribution
Virtual Humans for Animation, Ergonomics, and Simulation
The last few years have seen great maturation in the computation speed and control methods needed to portray 3D virtual humans suitable for real interactive applications. We first describe the state of the art, then focus on the particular approach taken at the University of Pennsylvania with the Jack system. Various aspects of real-time virtual humans are considered, such as appearance and motion, interactive control, autonomous action, gesture, attention, locomotion, and multiple individuals. The underlying architecture consists of a sense-control-act structure that permits reactive behaviors to be locally adaptive to the environment, and a PaT-Net parallel finite-state machine controller that can be used to drive virtual humans through complex tasks. Finally, we argue for a deep connection between language and animation and describe current efforts in linking them through the JackMOO extension to lambdaMOO
To Affinity and Beyond: Interactive Digital Humans as a Human Computer Interface
The field of human computer interaction is increasingly exploring the use of more natural, human-like user interfaces to build intelligent agents to aid in everyday life. This is coupled with a move to people using ever more realistic avatars to represent themselves in their digital lives. As the ability to produce emotionally engaging digital human representations is only just now becoming technically possible, there is little research into how to approach such tasks. This is due to both technical complexity and operational implementation cost. This is now changing as we are at a nexus point with new approaches, faster graphics processing and enabling new technologies in machine learning and computer vision becoming available. I articulate the issues required for such digital humans to be considered successfully located on the other side of the phenomenon known as the Uncanny Valley. My results show that a complex mix of perceived and contextual aspects affect the sense making on digital humans and highlights previously undocumented effects of interactivity on the affinity. Users are willing to accept digital humans as a new form of user interface and they react to them emotionally in previously unanticipated ways. My research shows that it is possible to build an effective interactive digital human that crosses the Uncanny Valley. I directly explore what is required to build a visually realistic digital human as a primary research question and I explore if such a realistic face provides sufficient benefit to justify the challenges involved in building it. I conducted a Delphi study to inform the research approaches and then produced a complex digital human character based on these insights. This interactive and realistic digital human avatar represents a major technical undertaking involving multiple teams around the world. Finally, I explored a framework for examining the ethical implications and signpost future research areas
- âŠ