SpoookyJS. Ein multiagentenbasiertes JavaScript-Framework zur flexiblen Implementation digitaler browserbasierter Brettspiele und spielübergreifender künstlicher Intelligenz

Künstliche Intelligenz in digitalen Spielen ist zumeist Anwendungsdomäne komplexer spielspezifischer Softwarelösungen mangelnder Erweiterbarkeit. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Konzeption und Realisierung des JavaScript-Frameworks SpoookyJS, das die vereinfachte Erstellung browserbasierter digitaler Brettspiele ermöglicht. Entwickelt als Multiagentensystem, bietet SpoookyJS künstliche Gegner in den umgesetzten Spielen und fungiert als Test- und Entwicklungsumgebung für die Forschung um spielübergreifende artifizielle Entscheidungsfindung

The intangibility of tangible objects: re-telling artefact stories through spatial multimedia annotations and 3D objects

An interdisciplinary team at the University of Cologne just released Kompakkt, an open-source online-tool for linking 3D objects to multimedia content and for gathering information through annotations in 3D space more generally. It enables users to share, explore, and collaboratively annotate objects in standard modern web browsers. The 3D representation of an object serves as the hub of an open-ended collection of heterogeneous information established through the use of multimedia annotations. The annotations are flexible (meta)data complementing what one usually finds in collection management systems in the GLAM sector. Through personalised and group level collections of 3D models, images, sounds and videos Kompakkt enables a novel solution for gathering and generating artefact information. The third dimension of objects highlights the perspective of annotations in a new way: annotations are not only linked to a specific location in space, the corresponding point of view chosen by the user is also relevant. Linking and ranking annotations leads to moving from one annotation (and a specific perspective) to another, which implies a movement through space in time. That allows new ways of annotation-based storytelling, where annotations can be used for presentations in which movement in VR- and AR-applications is embedded

Modelling Virtual Realities. Virtual Reality as a Transformative Technology for the Humanities

The current state of the art technologies offer many people the opportunity to experience Virtual Reality (VR) without having to purchase expensive devices. This results in a rapidly growing number of different explorable contents, and overall concepts are also quite diverse. Looking at VR as a form of representation and as a means of reproducing narratives, many potential research questions also for the (digital) humanities arise. Analyzing VR from this perspective includes observing, exploring, and comprehending the modelling of virtual worlds. It is of key importance to consider the process of creation, which is a process of modelling done by different individuals with different disciplinary backgrounds. Thus, several practical and reflective theoretical Digital Humanities courses at the University of Cologne were offered in which virtual worlds for the narration of theatre plays as well as other narratives were modeled by the students. This approach includes the presentation of appropriate concepts to the students, guiding them through concrete cases while also providing enough space for new creative and individual ideas. For this purpose, teaching began with the adaptation of works originated in other media. Theatre plays were used as the basis for a first transmission into this audio-visual form of representation, focussing on the processes of media transformation. During the development of the different practical projects, a tension between realistic and symbolic representation, interactivity, storytelling, self- and world-perception, and individual immersive experiences emerged. This paper proposes bridging VR and Humanities, creating a valuable outcome through the implementation of virtual realities in teaching environments and through the reflection on the narratives and content in the process of modeling humanities. The development of VR applications as a process of media transformation in teaching will be discussed here