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

Affective Medicine: a review of Affective Computing efforts in Medical Informatics

Background: Affective computing (AC) is concerned with emotional interactions performed with and through computers. It is defined as “computing that relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotions”. AC enables investigation and understanding of the relation between human emotions and health as well as application of assistive and useful technologies in the medical domain. Objectives: 1) To review the general state of the art in AC and its applications in medicine, and 2) to establish synergies between the research communities of AC and medical informatics. Methods: Aspects related to the human affective state as a determinant of the human health are discussed, coupled with an illustration of significant AC research and related literature output. Moreover, affective communication channels are described and their range of application fields is explored through illustrative examples. Results: The presented conferences, European research projects and research publications illustrate the recent increase of interest in the AC area by the medical community. Tele-home healthcare, AmI, ubiquitous monitoring, e-learning and virtual communities with emotionally expressive characters for elderly or impaired people are few areas where the potential of AC has been realized and applications have emerged. Conclusions: A number of gaps can potentially be overcome through the synergy of AC and medical informatics. The application of AC technologies parallels the advancement of the existing state of the art and the introduction of new methods. The amount of work and projects reviewed in this paper witness an ambitious and optimistic synergetic future of the affective medicine field

Example Based Caricature Synthesis

The likeness of a caricature to the original face image is an essential and often overlooked part of caricature production. In this paper we present an example based caricature synthesis technique, consisting of shape exaggeration, relationship exaggeration, and optimization for likeness. Rather than relying on a large training set of caricature face pairs, our shape exaggeration step is based on only one or a small number of examples of facial features. The relationship exaggeration step introduces two definitions which facilitate global facial feature synthesis. The first is the T-Shape rule, which describes the relative relationship between the facial elements in an intuitive manner. The second is the so called proportions, which characterizes the facial features in a proportion form. Finally we introduce a similarity metric as the likeness metric based on the Modified Hausdorff Distance (MHD) which allows us to optimize the configuration of facial elements, maximizing likeness while satisfying a number of constraints. The effectiveness of our algorithm is demonstrated with experimental results

Virtual humans: thirty years of research, what next?

In this paper, we present research results and future challenges in creating realistic and believable Virtual Humans. To realize these modeling goals, real-time realistic representation is essential, but we also need interactive and perceptive Virtual Humans to populate the Virtual Worlds. Three levels of modeling should be considered to create these believable Virtual Humans: 1) realistic appearance modeling, 2) realistic, smooth and flexible motion modeling, and 3) realistic high-level behaviors modeling. At first, the issues of creating virtual humans with better skeleton and realistic deformable bodies are illustrated. To give a level of believable behavior, challenges are laid on generating on the fly flexible motion and complex behaviours of Virtual Humans inside their environments using a realistic perception of the environment. Interactivity and group behaviours are also important parameters to create believable Virtual Humans which have challenges in creating believable relationship between real and virtual humans based on emotion and personality, and simulating realistic and believable behaviors of groups and crowds. Finally, issues in generating realistic virtual clothed and haired people are presente

Software agents in music and sound art research/creative work: Current state and a possible direction

Composers, musicians and computer scientists have begun to use software-based agents to create music and sound art in both linear and non-linear (non-predetermined form and/or content) idioms, with some robust approaches now drawing on various disciplines. This paper surveys recent work: agent technology is first introduced, a theoretical framework for its use in creating music/sound art works put forward, and an overview of common approaches then given. Identifying areas of neglect in recent research, a possible direction for further work is then briefly explored. Finally, a vision for a new hybrid model that integrates non-linear, generative, conversational and affective perspectives on interactivity is proposed

Human behaviour modelling in complex socio-technical systems : an agent based approach

For many years we have been striving to understand human behaviour and our interactions with our socio-technological environment. By advancing our knowledge in this area, we have helped the design of new or improved work processes and technologies. Historically, much of the work in analysing social interactions has been conducted within the social sciences. However, computer simulation has brought an extra tool in trying to understand and model human behaviours. Using an agent based approach this presentation describes my work in constructing computational models of human behaviour for informing design through simulation. With examples from projects in two main application areas of crisis and emergency management, and energy management I describe how my work addresses some main issues in agent based social simulation. The first concerns the process by which we develop these models. The second lies in the nature of socio-technical systems. Human societies are a perfect example of a complex system exhibiting characteristics of self-organisation, adaptability and showing emergent phenomena such as cooperation and robustness. I describe how complex systems theory may be applied to improve our understanding of socio-technical systems, and how our micro level interactions lead to emergent mutual awareness for problem-solving. From agent based simulation systems I show how context awareness may be modelled. Looking forward to the future, I discuss how the increasing prevalence of artificial agents in our society will cause us to re-examine the new types of interactions and cooperative behaviours that will emerge.Depuis de nombreuses années, nous nous sommes efforcés de comprendre le comportement humain et nos interactions avec l'environnement sociotechnique. Grâce à l'avancée de nos connaissances dans ce domaine, nous avons contribué à la conception de technologies et de processus de travail nouveaux ou améliorés. Historiquement, une part importante du travail d'analyse des interactions sociales fut entreprise au sein des sciences sociales. Cependant, la simulation informatique a apporté un nouvel outil pour tenter de comprendre et de modéliser les comportements humains. En utilisant une approche à base d'agents, cette présentation décrit mon travail sur la construction de modèles informatiques du comportement humain pour guider la conception par la simulation. A l'aide d'exemples issus de projets des deux domaines d'application que sont la gestion des crises et de l'urgence et la gestion de l'énergie, je décris comment mon travail aborde certains problèmes centraux à la simulation sociale à base d'agents. Le premier concerne le processus par lequel nous développons ces modèles. Le second problème provient de la nature des systèmes sociotechniques. Les sociétés humaines constituent un exemple parfait de système complexe possédant des caractéristiques d'auto-organisation et d'adaptabilité, et affichant des phénomènes émergents tels que la coopération et la robustesse. Je décris comment la théorie des systèmes complexes peut être appliquée pour améliorer notre compréhension des systèmes sociotechniques, et comment nos interactions au niveau microscopique mènent à l'émergence d'une conscience mutuelle pour la résolution de problèmes. A partir de systèmes de simulation à base d'agents, je montre comment la conscience du contexte peut être modélisée. En terme de perspectives, j'expliquerai comment la hausse de la prévalence des agents artificiels dans notre société nous forcera à considérer de nouveaux types d'interactions et de comportements coopératifs

The Virtual Storyteller: story generation by simulation

The Virtual Storyteller is a multi-agent framework that generates stories based on a concept called emergent narrative. In this paper, we describe the motivation and approach of the Virtual Storyteller, and give an overview of the computational processes involved in the story generation process. We also discuss some of the challenges posed by our chosen approach

Social Emotions in Multiagent Systems

Tesis por compendioA lo largo de los últimos años, los sistemas multi-agente (SMA) han demostrado ser un paradigma potente y versátil, con un gran potencial a la hora de resolver problemas complejos en entornos dinámicos y distribuidos. Este potencial no se debe principalmente a sus características individuales (como son su autonomía, su capacidad de percepción, reacción y de razonamiento), sino que también a la capacidad de comunicación y cooperación a la hora de conseguir un objetivo. De hecho, su capacidad social es la que más llama la atención, es este comportamiento social el que dota de potencial a los sistemas multi-agente. Estas características han hecho de los SMA, la herramienta de inteligencia artificial (IA) más utilizada para el diseño de entornos virtuales inteligentes (IVE), los cuales son herramientas de simulación compleja basadas en agentes. Sin embargo, los IVE incorporan restricciones físicas (como gravedad, fuerzas, rozamientos, etc.), así como una representación 3D de lo que se quiere simular. Así mismo, estas herramientas no son sólo utilizadas para la realización de simulaciones. Con la aparición de nuevas aplicaciones como \emph{Internet of Things (IoT)}, \emph{Ambient Intelligence (AmI)}, robot asistentes, entre otras, las cuales están en contacto directo con el ser humano. Este contacto plantea nuevos retos a la hora de interactuar con estas aplicaciones. Una nueva forma de interacción que ha despertado un especial interés, es el que se relaciona con la detección y/o simulación de estados emocionales. Esto ha permitido que estas aplicaciones no sólo puedan detectar nuestros estados emocionales, sino que puedan simular y expresar sus propias emociones mejorando así la experiencia del usuario con dichas aplicaciones. Con el fin de mejorar la experiencia humano-máquina, esta tesis plantea como objetivo principal la creación de modelos emocionales sociales, los cuales podrán ser utilizados en aplicaciones MAS permitiendo a los agentes interpretar y/o emular diferentes estados emocionales y, además, emular fenómenos de contagio emocional. Estos modelos permitirán realizar simulaciones complejas basadas en emociones y aplicaciones más realistas en dominios como IoT, AIm, SH.Over the past few years, multi-agent systems (SMA) have proven to be a powerful and versatile paradigm, with great potential for solving complex problems in dynamic and distributed environments. This potential is not primarily due to their individual characteristics (such as their autonomy, their capacity for perception, reaction and reasoning), but also the ability to communicate and cooperate in achieving a goal. In fact, its social capacity is the one that draws the most attention, it is this social behavior that gives potential to multi-agent systems. These characteristics have made the SMA, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool most used for the design of intelligent virtual environments (IVE), which are complex agent-based simulation tools. However, IVE incorporates physical constraints (such as gravity, forces, friction, etc.), as well as a 3D representation of what you want to simulate. Also, these tools are not only used for simulations. With the emergence of new applications such as \emph {Internet of Things (IoT)}, \emph {Ambient Intelligence (AmI)}, robot assistants, among others, which are in direct contact with humans. This contact poses new challenges when it comes to interacting with these applications. A new form of interaction that has aroused a special interest is that which is related to the detection and / or simulation of emotional states. This has allowed these applications not only to detect our emotional states, but also to simulate and express their own emotions, thus improving the user experience with those applications. In order to improve the human-machine experience, this thesis aims to create social emotional models, which can be used in MAS applications, allowing agents to interpret and / or emulate different emotional states, and emulate phenomena of emotional contagion. These models will allow complex simulations based on emotions and more realistic applications in domains like IoT, AIm, SH.Al llarg dels últims anys, els sistemes multi-agent (SMA) han demostrat ser un paradigma potent i versàtil, amb un gran potencial a l'hora de resoldre problemes complexos en entorns dinàmics i distribuïts. Aquest potencial no es deu principalment a les seues característiques individuals (com són la seua autonomia, la seua capacitat de percepció, reacció i de raonament), sinó que també a la capacitat de comunicació i cooperació a l'hora d'aconseguir un objectiu. De fet, la seua capacitat social és la que més crida l'atenció, és aquest comportament social el que dota de potencial als sistemes multi-agent. Aquestes característiques han fet dels SMA, l'eina d'intel·ligència artificial (IA) més utilitzada per al disseny d'entorns virtuals intel·ligents (IVE), els quals són eines de simulació complexa basades en agents. No obstant això, els IVE incorporen restriccions físiques (com gravetat, forces, fregaments, etc.), així com una representació 3D del que es vol simular. Així mateix, aquestes eines no són només utilitzades per a la realització de simulacions. Amb l'aparició de noves aplicacions com \emph{Internet of Things (IOT)}, \emph{Ambient Intelligence (AmI)}, robot assistents, entre altres, les quals estan en contacte directe amb l'ésser humà. Aquest contacte planteja nous reptes a l'hora d'interactuar amb aquestes aplicacions. Una nova forma d'interacció que ha despertat un especial interès, és el que es relaciona amb la detecció i/o simulació d'estats emocionals. Això ha permès que aquestes aplicacions no només puguen detectar els nostres estats emocionals, sinó que puguen simular i expressar les seues pròpies emocions millorant així l'experiència de l'usuari amb aquestes aplicacions. Per tal de millorar l'experiència humà-màquina, aquesta tesi planteja com a objectiu principal la creació de models emocionals socials, els quals podran ser utilitzats en aplicacions MAS permetent als agents interpretar i/o emular diferents estats emocionals i, a més, emular fenòmens de contagi emocional. Aquests models permetran realitzar simulacions complexes basades en emocions i aplicacions més realistes en dominis com IoT, AIM, SH.Rincón Arango, JA. (2018). Social Emotions in Multiagent Systems [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/98090TESISCompendi