Combining Rational and Biological Factors in Virtual Agent Decision Making

To enhance believability of virtual agents, this paper presents an agent-based modelling approach for decision making, which integrates rational reasoning based on means-end analysis with personal psychological and biological aspects. The agent model developed is a combination of a BDI-model and a utility-based decision model in the context of specific desires and beliefs. The approach is illustrated by addressing the behaviour of violent criminals, thereby creating a model for virtual criminals. Within a number of simulation experiments, the model has been tested in the context of a street robbery scenario. In addition, a user study has been performed, which confirms the fact that the model enhances believability of virtual agents. © 2009 The Author(s)

An Ambient Agent Model for Monitoring and Analysing Dynamics of Complex Human Behaviour

In ambient intelligent systems, monitoring of a human could consist of more complex tasks than merely identifying whether a certain value of a sensor is above a certain threshold. Instead, such tasks may involve monitoring of complex dynamic interactions between human and environment. In order to enable such more complex types of monitoring, this paper presents a generic agent-based framework. The framework consists of support on various levels of system design, namely: (1) the top level, including the interaction between agents, (2) the agent level, providing support on the design of individual agents, and (3) the level of monitoring complex dynamic behaviour, allowing the specification of the aforementioned complex monitoring properties within the agents. The approach is exemplified by a large case study concerning the assessment of driving behaviour, and is applied to two smaller cases as well (concerning fall detection of elderly, and assistance of naval operations, respectively), which are briefly described. These case studies have illustrated that the presented framework enables developers within ambient intelligence to build systems with more expressiveness regarding their monitoring focus. Moreover, they have shown that the framework is easy to use and applicable in a wide variety of domains. © 2011 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved

Effort in gestural interactions with imaginary objects in Hindustani Dhrupad vocal music

Physical effort has often been regarded as a key factor of expressivity in music performance. Nevertheless, systematic experimental approaches to the subject have been rare. In North Indian classical (Hindustani) vocal music, singers often engage with melodic ideas during improvisation by manipulating intangible, imaginary objects with their hands, such as through stretching, pulling, pushing, throwing etc. The above observation suggests that some patterns of change in acoustic features allude to interactions that real objects through their physical properties can afford. The present study reports on the exploration of the relationships between movement and sound by accounting for the physical effort that such interactions require in the Dhrupad genre of Hindustani vocal improvisation. The work follows a mixed methodological approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse interviews, audio-visual material and movement data. Findings indicate that despite the flexibility in the way a Dhrupad vocalist might use his/her hands while singing, there is a certain degree of consistency by which performers associate effort levels with melody and types of gestural interactions with imaginary objects. However, different schemes of cross-modal associations are revealed for the vocalists analysed, that depend on the pitch space organisation of each particular melodic mode (rāga), the mechanical requirements of voice production, the macro-structure of the ālāp improvisation and morphological cross-domain analogies. Results further suggest that a good part of the variance in both physical effort and gesture type can be explained through a small set of sound and movement features. Based on the findings, I argue that gesturing in Dhrupad singing is guided by: the know-how of humans in interacting with and exerting effort on real objects of the environment, the movement–sound relationships transmitted from teacher to student in the oral music training context and the mechanical demands of vocalisation

Smartphone tools for anaphylaxis management

Anaphylaxis is a severe life-threatening allergic condition which is increasing in prevalence and now affects more than 2% of UK children. Anaphylaxis management requires the avoidance of allergen triggers and preparation in readiness for an anaphylactic reaction. People with anaphylaxis and their carers carry Adrenaline Auto-Injectors which need to be administered immediately in the event of an anaphylactic reaction. But, unfortunately, many people often do not know how to use the injectors and fail to use them or fail to use them correctly. This is due in part to deficiencies in training and also to a lack of a system encouraging continuous practice and providing feedback on that practice. Pervasive healthcare research has demonstrated potential in supporting the management of chronic conditions such as diabetes. However, research into assistive technologies for the support of anaphylaxis management has been significantly neglected. Thesis results provide evidence of the potential that smartphone tools have to significantly improve adrenaline injection training skills and a positive influence on self-efficacy. In addition, the results provide insights into possible self-efficacy failings in traditional training and benefits of embedding self-efficacy theory into the design process. The thesis also shows that clinical staff expressed positive feedback after they were provided the technology for one week

Integrative Modeling of Emotions in Virtual Agents

Treur, J. [Promotor]Bosse, T. [Copromotor]Hoorn, J.F. [Copromotor

On Human Aspects in Ambient Intelligence

This paper briefly outlines the scientific area that addresses Ambient In-telligence applications in which not only sensor data, but also knowledge from the human-directed sciences such as biomedical science, neuroscience, and psycho-logical and social sciences is incorporated. This knowledge enables the environ-ment to perform more in-depth, human-like analyses of the functioning of the observed humans, and to come up with better informed actions. It is discussed which ingredients are important to realise this view, and how frameworks can be developed to combine them to obtain the intended type of systems: reflective cou-pled human-environment systems. Finally, further perspectives are discussed for Ambient Intelligence applications based on these reflective coupled human-environment systems