Simulation of emotions of agents in virtual environments using neural networks

A distributed architecture for a system simulating the emotional state of an agent acting in a virtual environment is presented. The system is an implementation of an event appraisal model of emotional behaviour and uses neural networks to learn how the emotional state should be influenced by the occurrence of environmental and internal\ud stimuli. A part of the modular system is domain-independent. The system can easily be adapted for handling different events that influence the emotional state. A first\ud prototype and a testbed for this architecture are presented

The Application of the Geiger-Müller Ion Counter to the Study of the Space Distribution of X-ray Photoelectrons

The photographic plate in the apparatus for the magnetic analysis of x-ray photoelectrons has been replaced by a Geiger-Müller ion counter and the magnetic spectrum of the photoelectrons ejected from a thin film of gold by primary x-ray from molybdenum has been studied. Very great resolving power is obtained and considerable precision in determining the exact position of the lines (i.e. the energies of the photoelectrons). The numbers of LIII electrons of gold ejected by the Kα1 x-ray of molybdenum have been plotted as a function of the angle of ejection and compared with the theoretical longitudinal distribution predicted by Schur

The role of working memory sub-components in food choice and dieting success

Evidence suggests a role for self-reported working memory (WM) in self-reported food intake, but it is not known which WM sub-components are involved. It is also important to consider how individual differences in dietary restraint and disinhibition influence WM and the impact of this on food choice. The current study assessed the relationship between WM sub-components and food choice, using computerised measures of WM sub-components and a direct assessment of food intake. The role of dieting success (measured by restraint and disinhibition) as a distal predictor of food choice that influences food choices via WM, and the role of WM more generally in dieting success were investigated. Female undergraduate students (N = 117, mean age: 18.9 years, mean BMI: 21.6 kg/m2) completed computer tasks assessing three components of WM (updating, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad) and a snack food taste-test. Greater visuospatial WM span was associated with a higher (lower) percentage of food intake that was low (high) energy dense. It was also found that unsuccessful dieters (high restraint, high disinhibition) had poorer visuospatial WM span and consumed a lower (higher) percentage of low (high) energy dense food. Visuospatial WM span significantly mediated the relationship between dieting success and percentage of low energy dense food intake. Further, dietary restraint was associated with poorer updating ability, irrespective of disinhibition. These findings suggest that better visuospatial WM is associated with a greater (reduced) preference for low (high) energy dense foods, and that deficits in visuospatial WM may undermine dieting attempts. Future work should assess whether the ability to deal with food cravings mediates the relationship between visuospatial WM and dieting success and investigate how WM may influence the mechanisms underlying behavioural control

The Direction of Ejection of X-Ray Electrons

No conclusive evidence that the direction in which photo-electrons are ejected by X-rays depends in any way upon the nature of the atom from which the ejection takes place has as yet been brought forward. Auger, using the C. T. R. Wilson cloud expansion-chamber method, showed that the most probable direction of ejection in a gas is a function of the frequency of the incident X-rays, but the variations which he found in this most probable direction with the nature of the gas used (oxygen or nitrogen, argon, krypton, xenon) were probably less than the experimental error, particularly as heterogeneous X-rays were used and the frequency of the X-rays which were most effective in ejecting electrons may have varied from gas to gas. Loughridge concluded that the most probable direction of ejection was the same for water-vapor, air and argon, but the absorption energies of even the K-shells of all these atoms is so small that at best only a small effect would be expected in these cases. Bothe using the point-discharge ion-counter made observations on air and on gases the molecules of which contained I, Br and Cl atoms. His results show small variations with the nature of the gas, but again as heterogeneous X-rays were used and his maxima were not sharp the variations were probably less than the experimental accuracy

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

Learning emotions in virtual environments

A modular hybrid neural network architecture, called SHAME, for emotion learning is introduced. The system learns from annotated data how the emotional state is generated and changes due to internal and external stimuli. Part of the modular architecture is domain independent and part must be\ud adapted to the domain under consideration.\ud The generation and learning of emotions is based on the event appraisal model.\ud The architecture is implemented in a prototype consisting of agents trying to survive in a virtual world. An evaluation of this prototype shows that the architecture is capable of\ud generating natural emotions and furthermore that training of the neural network modules in the architecture is computationally feasible.\ud Keywords: hybrid neural systems, emotions, learning, agents

Follow-up question handling in the IMIX and Ritel systems: A comparative study

One of the basic topics of question answering (QA) dialogue systems is how follow-up questions should be interpreted by a QA system. In this paper, we shall discuss our experience with the IMIX and Ritel systems, for both of which a follow-up question handling scheme has been developed, and corpora have been collected. These two systems are each other's opposites in many respects: IMIX is multimodal, non-factoid, black-box QA, while Ritel is speech, factoid, keyword-based QA. Nevertheless, we will show that they are quite comparable, and that it is fruitful to examine the similarities and differences. We shall look at how the systems are composed, and how real, non-expert, users interact with the systems. We shall also provide comparisons with systems from the literature where possible, and indicate where open issues lie and in what areas existing systems may be improved. We conclude that most systems have a common architecture with a set of common subtasks, in particular detecting follow-up questions and finding referents for them. We characterise these tasks using the typical techniques used for performing them, and data from our corpora. We also identify a special type of follow-up question, the discourse question, which is asked when the user is trying to understand an answer, and propose some basic methods for handling it