Een navigatie-agent in virtual reality

We geven een korte beschrijving van ons werk gericht op het ontwerpen van een navigatie-agent voor een virtuele werled die met natuurlijke taal aangesproken kan worden. Het project is gestart als afstudeerwerk van de tweede auteur. Dit artikel beschrijft voornamelijk zijn werk. Het werk wordt op dit moment voortgezet binnen een nationaal project op het gebied van toegankelijkheid van webpagina’s en binnen een aantal kleinere, deels ook door afstudeerders uitgevoerde, deelprojecten. De navigatieagent is onderdeel van een agent-raamwerk waarbinnen gecommuniceerd kan worden met andere agents. De navigatietaak bestaat uit het gidsen van bezoekers in de omgeving en het beantwoorden van vragen over deze omgeving (een theatergebouw). Bezoekers worden uitgenodigd het gebouw te exploreren, rond te kijken, vragen te stellen en kunnen al doende advies krijgen van de navigatie-agent. Een plattegrond is aan de omgeving toegevoegd, zodat bezoekers kunnen refereren aan lokaties en objecten op deze kaart, zowel in natuurlijke taal als door aanwijzen en klikken met een muis. Daardoor is sprake van een multi-modaal systeem met cross-modale referentiemogelijkheden

Automating content generation for large-scale virtual learning environments using semantic web services

The integration of semantic web services with three-dimensional virtual worlds offers many potential avenues for the creation of dynamic, content-rich environments which can be used to entertain, educate, and inform. One such avenue is the fusion of the large volumes of data from Wiki-based sources with virtual representations of historic locations, using semantics to filter and present data to users in effective and personalisable ways. This paper explores the potential for such integration, addressing challenges ranging from accurately transposing virtual world locales to semantically-linked real world data, to integrating diverse ranges of semantic information sources in a usercentric and seamless fashion. A demonstrated proof-of-concept, using the Rome Reborn model, a detailed 3D representation of Ancient Rome within the Aurelian Walls, shows several advantages that can be gained through the use of existing Wiki and semantic web services to rapidly and automatically annotate content, as well as demonstrating the increasing need for Wiki content to be represented in a semantically-rich form. Such an approach has applications in a range of different contexts, including education, training, and cultural heritage

Navigation and Exploration in Virtual Environment with Virtual Agent using Java 3D

This project's objective was to investigate the potential used of Java 3D in developing a virtual environment integrated with virtual agent. The methodology of this project is constitutes on four (4) main phases; planning and analysis phase, modeling and development phase, integration construction phase and the last is testing phase. The testing phase indicates that in order to develop a virtual reality (VR) application, the developer must perform hard-coded programming to model the objects as well as to develop a behavior. Navigation and exploration activity in a virtual environment can be perform easily by using keyboard arrows. To develop a joint behavior between the virtual environment and virtual agent, complex and careful programming is required. This project's conclusion indicates that Java 3D provides other libraries to develop a VRapplication to better help user in navigation and exploration in a virtual environment. For that reason, further study and investigation can be conducted to achieve this goal

Navigation and wayfinding in learning spaces in 3D virtual worlds

There is a lack of published research on the design guidelines of learning spaces in virtual worlds. Therefore, when institutions aspire to create learning spaces in Second Life, there are few studies or guidelines to inform them except for individual case studies. The Design of Learning Spaces in 3D Virtual Environments (DELVE) project, funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee in the UK, was one of the first initiatives that identified through empirical investigations the usability problems associated with learning spaces in virtual worlds and the potential impact on student experience. The findings of the DELVE project revealed that applying architectural principles of real-world designs to virtual worlds may not be sufficient. In fact, design principles from urban planning, Human–Computer Interaction (HCI), web usability, geography, and psychology influence the design of learning spaces in virtual worlds. In DELVE, the researchers derived several usability guidelines: form should follow function, that is, that the shape of a building or object should be primarily based upon its intended function or purpose; use real-world metaphors such as mailboxes for students to leave messages, or search pods similar to real-world information kiosks; consider realism for familiarity and comfort; design for storytelling; or design to orient the user at the landing point, etc. However, the investigations in DELVE identified that the key usability problems experienced by users in 3D learning spaces are related to navigation and wayfinding. In this chapter, we report on the Navigation and Wayfinding (NAVY) project which builds on the findings of the DELVE project. As the most commonly used virtual world for education, Second Life was the logical choice for conducting the NAVY project research. Based upon empirical investigations of a number of islands in Second Life (an island is a space which is analogous to a website in a 2D environment) involving user-based studies, heuristic evaluations, and iterative reviews of the heuristics by usability experts, we have derived over 200 guidelines for the design of learning spaces in virtual worlds.