227,729 research outputs found
Multi-agent evolutionary systems for the generation of complex virtual worlds
Modern films, games and virtual reality applications are dependent on
convincing computer graphics. Highly complex models are a requirement for the
successful delivery of many scenes and environments. While workflows such as
rendering, compositing and animation have been streamlined to accommodate
increasing demands, modelling complex models is still a laborious task. This
paper introduces the computational benefits of an Interactive Genetic Algorithm
(IGA) to computer graphics modelling while compensating the effects of user
fatigue, a common issue with Interactive Evolutionary Computation. An
intelligent agent is used in conjunction with an IGA that offers the potential
to reduce the effects of user fatigue by learning from the choices made by the
human designer and directing the search accordingly. This workflow accelerates
the layout and distribution of basic elements to form complex models. It
captures the designer's intent through interaction, and encourages playful
discovery
Generative Design in Minecraft (GDMC), Settlement Generation Competition
This paper introduces the settlement generation competition for Minecraft,
the first part of the Generative Design in Minecraft challenge. The settlement
generation competition is about creating Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents
that can produce functional, aesthetically appealing and believable settlements
adapted to a given Minecraft map - ideally at a level that can compete with
human created designs. The aim of the competition is to advance procedural
content generation for games, especially in overcoming the challenges of
adaptive and holistic PCG. The paper introduces the technical details of the
challenge, but mostly focuses on what challenges this competition provides and
why they are scientifically relevant.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, Part of the Foundations of Digital Games 2018
proceedings, as part of the workshop on Procedural Content Generatio
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Towards Rapid Generation and Visualisation of Large 3D Urban Landscapes for Mobile Device Navigation
In this paper a procedural 3D modelling solution for mobile devices is presented based on scripting algorithms allowing for both the automatic and also semi-automatic creation of photorealistic quality virtual urban content. The combination of aerial images, GIS data, 2D ground maps and terrestrial photographs as input data coupled with a user-friendly customized interface permits the automatic and interactive generation of large-scale, accurate, georeferenced and fully-textured 3D virtual city content, content that can be specially optimized for use with mobile devices but also with navigational tasks in mind. Furthermore, a user-centred mobile virtual reality (VR) visualisation and interaction tool operating on PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) for pedestrian navigation is also discussed. Via this engine, the import and display of various navigational file formats (2D and 3D) is supported, including a comprehensive front-end user-friendly graphical user interface providing immersive virtual 3D navigation
Interactive tag maps and tag clouds for the multiscale exploration of large spatio-temporal datasets
'Tag clouds' and 'tag maps' are introduced to represent geographically referenced text. In combination, these aspatial and spatial views are used to explore a large structured spatio-temporal data set by providing overviews and filtering by text and geography. Prototypes are implemented using freely available technologies including Google Earth and Yahoo! 's Tag Map applet. The interactive tag map and tag cloud techniques and the rapid prototyping method used are informally evaluated through successes and limitations encountered. Preliminary evaluation suggests that the techniques may be useful for generating insights when visualizing large data sets containing geo-referenced text strings. The rapid prototyping approach enabled the technique to be developed and evaluated, leading to geovisualization through which a number of ideas were generated. Limitations of this approach are reflected upon. Tag placement, generalisation and prominence at different scales are issues which have come to light in this study that warrant further work
Learning a Neural Semantic Parser from User Feedback
We present an approach to rapidly and easily build natural language
interfaces to databases for new domains, whose performance improves over time
based on user feedback, and requires minimal intervention. To achieve this, we
adapt neural sequence models to map utterances directly to SQL with its full
expressivity, bypassing any intermediate meaning representations. These models
are immediately deployed online to solicit feedback from real users to flag
incorrect queries. Finally, the popularity of SQL facilitates gathering
annotations for incorrect predictions using the crowd, which is directly used
to improve our models. This complete feedback loop, without intermediate
representations or database specific engineering, opens up new ways of building
high quality semantic parsers. Experiments suggest that this approach can be
deployed quickly for any new target domain, as we show by learning a semantic
parser for an online academic database from scratch.Comment: Accepted at ACL 201
Museum Experience Design: A Modern Storytelling Methodology
In this paper we propose a new direction for design, in the context of the theme “Next Digital Technologies in Arts and Culture”, by employing modern methods based on Interaction Design, Interactive Storytelling and Artificial Intelligence. Focusing on Cultural Heritage, we propose a new paradigm for Museum Experience Design, facilitating on the one hand traditional visual and multimedia communication and, on the other, a new type of interaction with artefacts, in the form of a Storytelling Experience. Museums are increasingly being transformed into hybrid spaces, where virtual (digital) information coexists with tangible artefacts. In this context, “Next Digital Technologies” play a new role, providing methods to increase cultural accessibility and enhance experience. Not only is the goal to convey stories hidden inside artefacts, as well as items or objects connected to them, but it is also to pave the way for the creation of new ones through an interactive museum experience that continues after the museum visit ends. Social sharing, in particular, can greatly increase the value of dissemination
Lexically Constrained Decoding for Sequence Generation Using Grid Beam Search
We present Grid Beam Search (GBS), an algorithm which extends beam search to
allow the inclusion of pre-specified lexical constraints. The algorithm can be
used with any model that generates a sequence , by maximizing . Lexical
constraints take the form of phrases or words that must be present in the
output sequence. This is a very general way to incorporate additional knowledge
into a model's output without requiring any modification of the model
parameters or training data. We demonstrate the feasibility and flexibility of
Lexically Constrained Decoding by conducting experiments on Neural
Interactive-Predictive Translation, as well as Domain Adaptation for Neural
Machine Translation. Experiments show that GBS can provide large improvements
in translation quality in interactive scenarios, and that, even without any
user input, GBS can be used to achieve significant gains in performance in
domain adaptation scenarios.Comment: Accepted as a long paper at ACL 201
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Using data visualization in creativity workshops: a new tool in the designer's kit
Creativity workshops have proved effective in drawing out unexpected requirements and giving form to participants' novel ideas. Here, we introduce a new addition to the workshop designer's toolkit: interactive data visualization, used as stimuli to prompt insight and inspire creativity. We first describe a pilot study in which we compare the effectiveness of two different styles of data visualization. Here we found that a less ambiguous style was more effective in supporting idea generation. Following this, we report a case study in which we employ data visualization within a service design workshop, where participants gain insights that are later realized in design ideas
Immersive and non immersive 3D virtual city: decision support tool for urban sustainability
Sustainable urban planning decisions must not only consider the physical structure of the urban development but the economic, social and environmental factors. Due to the prolonged times scales of major urban development projects the current and future impacts of any decision made must be fully understood. Many key project decisions are made early in the decision making process with decision makers later seeking agreement for proposals once the key decisions have already been made, leaving many stakeholders, especially the general public, feeling marginalised by the process. Many decision support tools have been developed to aid in the decision making process, however many of these are expert orientated, fail to fully address spatial and temporal issues and do not reflect the interconnectivity of the separate domains and their indicators. This paper outlines a platform that combines computer game techniques, modelling of economic, social and environmental indicators to provide an interface that presents a 3D interactive virtual city with sustainability information overlain. Creating a virtual 3D urban area using the latest video game techniques ensures: real-time rendering of the 3D graphics; exploitation of novel techniques of how complex multivariate data is presented to the user; immersion in the 3D urban development, via first person navigation, exploration and manipulation of the environment with consequences updated in real-time. The use of visualisation techniques begins to remove sustainability assessment’s reliance on the existing expert systems which are largely inaccessible to many of the stakeholder groups, especially the general public
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