Gestural Turing Test. A Motion-Capture Experiment for Exploring Believability In Artificial Nonverbal Communication.

One of the open problems in creating believable characters in computer games and collaborative virtual environments is simulating adaptive human-like motion. Classical artificial intelligence (AI) research places an emphasis on verbal language. In response to the limitations of classical AI, many researchers have turned their attention to embodied communication and situated intelligence. Inspired by Gestural Theory, which claims that speech emerged from visual, bodily gestures in primates, we implemented a variation of the Turing Test, using motion instead of text for messaging between agents. In doing this, we attempt to understand the qualities of motion that seem human-like to people. We designed two gestural AI algorithms that simulate or mimic communicative human motion using the positions of the head and the hands to determine three moving points as the signal. To run experiments, we implemented a networked-based architecture for a Vicon motion capture studio. Subjects were shown both artificial and human gestures, and were told to declare whether it was real or fake. Techniques such as simple gesture imitation were found to increase believability. While we require many such experiments to understand the perception of humanness in movement, we believe this research is essential to developing a truly believable character

Advances in GPCR modeling evaluated by the GPCR Dock 2013 assessment: Meeting new challenges

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved. Despite tremendous successes of GPCR crystallography, the receptors with available structures represent only a small fraction of human GPCRs. An important role of the modeling community is to maximize structural insights for the remaining receptors and complexes. The community-wide GPCR Dock assessment was established to stimulate and monitor the progress in molecular modeling and ligand docking for GPCRs. The four targets in the present third assessment round presented new and diverse challenges for modelers, including prediction of allosteric ligand interaction and activation states in 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors 1B and 2B, and modeling by extremely distant homology for smoothened receptor. Forty-four modeling groups participated in the assessment. State-of-the-art modeling approaches achieved close-to-experimental accuracy for small rigid orthosteric ligands and models built by close homology, and they correctly predicted protein fold for distant homology targets. Predictions of long loops and GPCR activation states remain unsolved problems

Multistudy Research Operations in the ICU: An Interprofessional Pandemic-Informed Approach

OBJECTIVES:. Proliferation of COVID-19 research underscored the need for improved awareness among investigators, research staff and bedside clinicians of the operational details of clinical studies. The objective was to describe the genesis, goals, participation, procedures, and outcomes of two research operations committees in an academic ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN:. Two-phase, single-center multistudy cohort. SETTING:. University-affiliated ICU in Hamilton, ON, Canada. PATIENTS:. Adult patients in the ICU, medical stepdown unit, or COVID-19 ward. INTERVENTIONS:. None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:. An interprofessional COVID Collaborative was convened at the pandemic onset within our department, to proactively coordinate studies, help navigate multiple authentic consent encounters by different research staff, and determine which studies would be suitable for coenrollment. From March 2020 to May 2021, five non-COVID trials continued, two were paused then restarted, and five were launched. Over 15 months, 161 patients were involved in 215 trial enrollments, 110 (51.1%) of which were into a COVID treatment trial. The overall informed consent rate (proportion agreed of those eligible and approached including a priori and deferred consent models) was 83% (215/259). The informed consent rate was lower for COVID-19 trials (110/142, 77.5%) than other trials (105/117, 89.7%; p = 0.01). Patients with COVID-19 were significantly more likely to be coenrolled in two or more studies (29/77, 37.7%) compared with other patients (13/84, 15.5%; p = 0.002). Review items for each new study were collated, refined, and evolved into a modifiable checklist template to set up each study for success. The COVID Collaborative expanded to a more formal Department of Critical Care Research Operations Committee in June 2021, supporting sustainable research operations during and beyond the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS:. Structured coordination and increased communication about research operations among diverse research stakeholders cultivated a sense of shared purpose and enhanced the integrity of clinical research operations