Emotional characters for automatic plot creation

The Virtual Storyteller is a multi-agent framework for automatic story generation. In this paper we describe how plots emerge from the actions of semi-autonomous character agents, focusing on the influence of the characters’ emotions on plot development

Когнитивни процеси, емоции и интелигентни интерфејси

Студијата презентира истражувања од повеќе научни дисциплини, како вештачка интелигенција, невронауки, психологија, лингвистика и филозофија, кои имаат потенцијал за креирање на интелигентни антропоморфни агенти и интерактивни технологии. Се разгледуваат системите од симболичка и конекционистичка вештачка интелигенција за моделирање на човековите когнитивни процеси, мислење, донесување одлуки, меморија и учење. Се анализираат моделите во вештачка интелигенција и роботика кои користат емоции како механизам за контрола на остварување на целите на роботот, како реакција на одредени ситуации, за одржување на процесот на социјална интеракција и за создавање на поуверливи антропормфни агенти. Презентираните интердисциплинарни методологии и концепти се мотивација за создавање на анимирани агенти кои користат говор, гестови, интонација и други невербални модалитети при конверзација со корисниците во интелигентните интерфејси

Designing Comprehensible Self-Organising Systems

textabstractSelf-organising systems are a popular engineering concept for designing decentralised autonomic computing systems. They are able to find solutions in complex and versatile problem domains, but as they capture more complexity in their own design, they are becoming less and less comprehensible to their users (be they humans or intelligent agents). We describe a design challenge that relates to usability theory in general and in particular resembles an observation made by Phoebe Senger, who noted that software agents tend to become incomprehensible in their behaviour as they grow more complex. In the manifestation of self-organising systems, the problem is more urgent (since we find ourselves using them more and more) and harder to solve at the same time (since these systems are not centrally controlled). We describe the problem domain and propose three system properties that could be used as quality indicators in this regard: Stability, Learnability and Engageability. We demonstrate their usage in a simple model of dynamic pricing markets (e.g. the electricity domain) and evaluate them in different ways

Hierarchické reaktívne plánovanie s prechodmi

Hierarchické reaktívne plánovanie (HRP) je oblúbená metóda pre riadenie správania umelých bytostí. Výhodou HRP je, že sa v ňom i komplexné správania zapisujú pomerne jednoducho. HRP má však v určitých situáciach problémy s biologickou vierohodnosťou. Toto je zčasti spôsobené tým, že sa v HRP obtiažne zapisujú tzv. prechodné správania a odloženie správania. Prechodné správania sú krátke činnosti, ktoré by simulované bytosti mali vykonávať medzi dvoma hlavnými správaniami a zabezpečiť hladký prechod medzi nimi. Odloženie správania je vhodné v prípade, keď bežiace správanie bude čoskoro končiť a preto by nemalo byť prerušené. V tejto práci rozšírime model HRP o prechodné správania a odloženie správania a popíšeme implementovaný prototyp.Hierarchical reactive planning (HRP) is a popular method for controlling virtual beings' behaviour. The advantage of HRP is that complex behaviours can be described relatively easily. However, in particular situations problems with biological plausibility arise. This is partially caused by the fact that so called transition behaviours and postponement of behaviour are hard to express in HRP. Transition behaviours are short actions that the simulated beings should engage in between two main behaviours in order to ensure a smooth transition between them. Postponement of behaviour is desirable in case the running behaviour is approaching the end and therefore should not be interrupted. In the present work we incorporate transition behaviours and postponement of behaviour into the model of HRP and describe the implemented prototype.Katedra softwaru a výuky informatikyDepartment of Software and Computer Science EducationFaculty of Mathematics and PhysicsMatematicko-fyzikální fakult

Automating iterative tasks with programming by demonstration

Programming by demonstration is an end-user programming technique that allows people to create programs by showing the computer examples of what they want to do. Users do not need specialised programming skills. Instead, they instruct the computer by demonstrating examples, much as they might show another person how to do the task. Programming by demonstration empowers users to create programs that perform tedious and time-consuming computer chores. However, it is not in widespread use, and is instead confined to research applications that end users never see. This makes it difficult to evaluate programming by demonstration tools and techniques. This thesis claims that domain-independent programming by demonstration can be made available in existing applications and used to automate iterative tasks by end users. It is supported by Familiar, a domain-independent, AppleScript-based programming-by-demonstration tool embodying standard machine learning algorithms. Familiar is designed for end users, so works in the existing applications that they regularly use. The assertion that programming by demonstration can be made available in existing applications is validated by identifying the relevant platform requirements and a range of platforms that meet them. A detailed scrutiny of AppleScript highlights problems with the architecture and with many implementations, and yields a set of guidelines for designing applications that support programming-by-demonstration. An evaluation shows that end users are capable of using programming by demonstration to automate iterative tasks. However, the subjects tended to prefer other tools, choosing Familiar only when the alternatives were unsuitable or unavailable. Familiar's inferencing is evaluated on an extensive set of examples, highlighting the tasks it can perform and the functionality it requires

Designing Embodied Interactive Software Agents for E-Learning: Principles, Components, and Roles

Embodied interactive software agents are complex autonomous, adaptive, and social software systems with a digital embodiment that enables them to act on and react to other entities (users, objects, and other agents) in their environment through bodily actions, which include the use of verbal and non-verbal communicative behaviors in face-to-face interactions with the user. These agents have been developed for various roles in different application domains, in which they perform tasks that have been assigned to them by their developers or delegated to them by their users or by other agents. In computer-assisted learning, embodied interactive pedagogical software agents have the general task to promote human learning by working with students (and other agents) in computer-based learning environments, among them e-learning platforms based on Internet technologies, such as the Virtual Linguistics Campus (www.linguistics-online.com). In these environments, pedagogical agents provide contextualized, qualified, personalized, and timely assistance, cooperation, instruction, motivation, and services for both individual learners and groups of learners. This thesis develops a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and user-oriented view of the design of embodied interactive pedagogical software agents, which integrates theoretical and practical insights from various academic and other fields. The research intends to contribute to the scientific understanding of issues, methods, theories, and technologies that are involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of embodied interactive software agents for different roles in e-learning and other areas. For developers, the thesis provides sixteen basic principles (Added Value, Perceptible Qualities, Balanced Design, Coherence, Consistency, Completeness, Comprehensibility, Individuality, Variability, Communicative Ability, Modularity, Teamwork, Participatory Design, Role Awareness, Cultural Awareness, and Relationship Building) plus a large number of specific guidelines for the design of embodied interactive software agents and their components. Furthermore, it offers critical reviews of theories, concepts, approaches, and technologies from different areas and disciplines that are relevant to agent design. Finally, it discusses three pedagogical agent roles (virtual native speaker, coach, and peer) in the scenario of the linguistic fieldwork classes on the Virtual Linguistics Campus and presents detailed considerations for the design of an agent for one of these roles (the virtual native speaker)

Navigating Subjectivity: South, a Psychometric Text Adventure.

South: A Psychometric Text Adventure is an artist’s book and a set of software programs. The South project re-conceptualises the artist’s book and wider bookforms, encouraging models of interaction that are aware of specific locations and individual subjects. These alternatives are a response to what this thesis frames as two rapidly stagnating forms. The thesis argues that both the artist’s book and electronic literature (see the glossary on page 343 for definitions of the key terms used throughout this thesis) have not made a significant impact on the cultural landscape of the early 21st century. Nor have they made a significant use of the key technological changes that have occurred since the first electronic literature emerged in the late 1970s (in the form of interactive fictions, sometimes called ‘Text Adventures’, such as Colossal Cave Adventure (Crowther, 1976)). In order to move forward from the increasingly problematic, disembodied, computational models used in these early digital works (discussed in chapters two, five and six) this thesis specifically recommends the formation of temporally specific, contextualised, relationships between readers and digital texts. The South project presents a multi-linear, situated and embodied form of intra-activity (see glossary) as an alternative to more linear forms of interaction. These ideas and their implications for electronic literature and artist’s books will be clarified and outlined throughout this thesis, as will the rationale for framing them as valid models for moving electronic literature and artist’s books into a position of cultural and technological relevance

Simulated role-playing from crowdsourced data

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-178).Collective Artificial Intelligence (CAl) simulates human intelligence from data contributed by many humans, mined for inter-related patterns. This thesis applies CAI to social role-playing, introducing an end-to-end process for compositing recorded performances from thousands of humans, and simulating open-ended interaction from this data. The CAI process combines crowdsourcing, pattern discovery, and case-based planning. Content creation is crowdsourced by recording role-players online. Browser-based tools allow nonexperts to annotate data, organizing content into a hierarchical narrative structure. Patterns discovered from data power a novel system combining plan recognition with case-based planning. The combination of this process and structure produces a new medium, which exploits a massive corpus to realize characters who interact and converse with humans. This medium enables new experiences in videogames, and new classes of training simulations, therapeutic applications, and social robots. While advances in graphics support incredible freedom to interact physically in simulations, current approaches to development restrict simulated social interaction to hand-crafted branches that do not scale to the thousands of possible patterns of actions and utterances observed in actual human interaction. There is a tension between freedom and system comprehension due to two bottlenecks, making open-ended social interaction a challenge. First is the authorial effort entailed to cover all possible inputs. Second, like other cognitive processes, imagination is a bounded resource. Any individual author only has so much imagination. The convergence of advances in connectivity, storage, and processing power is bringing people together in ways never before possible, amplifying the imagination of individuals by harnessing the creativity and productivity of the crowd, revolutionizing how we create media, and what media we can create. By embracing data-driven approaches, and capitalizing on the creativity of the crowd, authoring bottlenecks can be overcome, taking a step toward realizing a medium that robustly supports player choice. Doing so requires rethinking both technology and division of labor in media production. As a proof of concept, a CAI system has been evaluated by recording over 10,000 performances in The Restaurant Game, automating an Al-controlled waitress who interacts in the world, and converses with a human via text or speech. Quantitative results demonstrate how CAI supports significantly more open-ended interaction with humans, while focus groups reveal factors for improving engagement.by Jeffrey David Orkin.Ph.D

Navigating subjectivity : South, a Psychometric Text Adventure

South: A Psychometric Text Adventure is an artist’s book and a set of software programs. The South project re-conceptualises the artist’s book and wider bookforms, encouraging models of interaction that are aware of specific locations and individual subjects. These alternatives are a response to what this thesis frames as two rapidly stagnating forms. The thesis argues that both the artist’s book and electronic literature (see the glossary on page 343 for definitions of the key terms used throughout this thesis) have not made a significant impact on the cultural landscape of the early 21st century. Nor have they made a significant use of the key technological changes that have occurred since the first electronic literature emerged in the late 1970s (in the form of interactive fictions, sometimes called ‘Text Adventures’, such as Colossal Cave Adventure (Crowther, 1976)). In order to move forward from the increasingly problematic, disembodied, computational models used in these early digital works (discussed in chapters two, five and six) this thesis specifically recommends the formation of temporally specific, contextualised, relationships between readers and digital texts. The South project presents a multi-linear, situated and embodied form of intra-activity (see glossary) as an alternative to more linear forms of interaction. These ideas and their implications for electronic literature and artist’s books will be clarified and outlined throughout this thesis, as will the rationale for framing them as valid models for moving electronic literature and artist’s books into a position of cultural and technological relevance.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo