On the simulation of interactive non-verbal behaviour in virtual humans

Development of virtual humans has focused mainly in two broad areas - conversational agents and computer game characters. Computer game characters have traditionally been action-oriented - focused on the game-play - and conversational agents have been focused on sensible/intelligent conversation. While virtual humans have incorporated some form of non-verbal behaviour, this has been quite limited and more importantly not connected or connected very loosely with the behaviour of a real human interacting with the virtual human - due to a lack of sensor data and no system to respond to that data. The interactional aspect of non-verbal behaviour is highly important in human-human interactions and previous research has demonstrated that people treat media (and therefore virtual humans) as real people, and so interactive non-verbal behaviour is also important in the development of virtual humans. This paper presents the challenges in creating virtual humans that are non-verbally interactive and drawing corollaries with the development history of control systems in robotics presents some approaches to solving these challenges - specifically using behaviour based systems - and shows how an order of magnitude increase in response time of virtual humans in conversation can be obtained and that the development of rapidly responding non-verbal behaviours can start with just a few behaviours with more behaviours added without difficulty later in development

Masks of the Dark Goddess in Arthurian Literature: Origin and Evolution of Morgan le Fay

The world of Arthurian legend is one steeped in mythology and magic, reflecting ancient Celtic traditions and tales that long preceded it. Such tales often feature perplexing and seemingly contradictory characters who drive complex plotlines and frequently challenge primary figures, greatly impacting how the overall story unfolds. A primary example of such a character is Morgan le Fay, who, by the time Sir Thomas Malory writes Le Morte d\u27Arthur in the fifteenth century, has assumed a range of roles from sister to King Arthur, Queen in her own right, wicked sorceress, and healer. Using both Post-Colonial and Feminist lenses, this study focuses on the origin and evolution of the Arthurian character Morgan le Fay, analyzing how the shift from a Pre-Christian Celtic oral culture to a Christian literate one impacted the development of her character. Further, this work specifically aims to analyze the complexities that have gradually surfaced in regard to the nature of her character, while illustrating a level of consistency that she has maintained across texts and traditions, namely the roles of healer, embodiment of sovereignty, and agent of justice

Fact and Fiction Concerning Multinational Labor Relations

This article briefly reviews the magnitude, nature, and growth of the foreign investments of American-based MNCs, especially those in the nine member countries of the European Community (EC), and summarizes the major union fears and aspirations that arise from the rapid growth in scope and power of MNCs. The article focuses on the realities and fantasies surrounding the prospects for multinational collective bargaining with MNCs, which is widely viewed as the most feasible means by which unions can protect their vital interests threatened by MNCs. Unfortunately, in discussions of this matter considerable fiction is often mixed with fact. Some observers see international unionism and multinational collective bargaining as natural concommitants of the internationalization of production and product markets through the spread of MNCs, and they view these developments as the transnational extension of the phenomenon that has characterized the evolution of domestic union structures in response to the national widening of production and of product markets. In their fascination with the bold notion of the internationalization of collective bargaining it is tempting for commentators to allow abstract ideas and aspirations to prevail over realities. As background, the discussion includes a brief description of how American-based MNCs structure and manage their overseas labor relations policies and practices, the nature of the American industrial relations environment in which they operate, and the considerable differences in the industrial relations environments in the EC countries. The article concludes with a discussion of the union responses, both international and domestic, to the MNCs and, finally, with the effects of recent EC developments on the prospects for multinational collective bargaining there

Inverse Mapping of Polarised Optical Emission from Pulsars : Basic Formulation and Determination of Emission Altitude

We present an inverse mapping approach to determining the emission height of the optical photons from pulsars, which is directly constrained by empirical data. The model discussed is for the case of the Crab pulsar. Our method, using the optical Stokes parameters, determines the most likely geometry for emission including magnetic field inclination angle ($\alpha$), observers line of sight angle ($\chi$) and emission height. We discuss the computational implementation of the approach, along with any physical assumptions made. We find that the most likely emission altitude is at 20% of the light cylinder radius above the stellar surface, in the open field region. We also present a general treatment of the expected polarisation from synchrotron source with a truncated power law spectrum of particles.Comment: 17 pages 16 figures; accepted for publication in MNRA

Droplets: geo-located audio as a social media platform

Location-based audio has previously attracted some attention from the HCI community. This has mainly revolved around knowledge-sharing and creation of curated experiences as artistic expression. In this paper we present initial work in which we look at located audio through the lenses of social media, and present initial work on a social media app--Droplets--which seeks to create new geo-located social media experiences

I Wish I had an Afro

50 unnumbered pages : illustrations, portraits ; 27 cm. John is a black eleven year old, who lives in Westchester, N.Y. the book tells about his parents, friends and school. Illustrations on endpapers and dust jacket. John Shearer (1947–2019) was an American photographer, writer, and filmmaker, best known for his photojournalism concerning poverty or social economics. Walter Lorraine Fund.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/specialcollections_books_photography/1009/thumbnail.jp

I'm Too Young For This @#!%

In order to support my music photography habit, I worked as an assistant to commercial photographers on a freelance basis. Through my membership in the American Society of Media Photographers, I was able to assist photographers from all over the country. I tried to learn as much about the craft of photography as possible during those years, not just about lighting, but also about the business of photography. While I was fortunate to work for dozens of photographers from around the country, there were two • photographers in particular that influenced my work greatly. Greg Puis (www.pulsphoto.com) was the first commercial photographer to really take me under his wing. He had this specific way of lighting that was time consuming and really beautiful. (It wasn't uncommon for me to spend an entire day lighting one or two shots.) He was the kind of photographer that editors and art directors hired when they were looking for "arty." Jason Lindsey (www.jasonlindsey.com) on the other hand, was the type of photographer who did great work and always kept lighting as simple as possible. His strength was in connecting with his clients and subjects on a personal level. (Something Puis often struggled with) Jason was the kind of photographer that made work fun. (There was often drinking involved) Greg was a little more disciplined, but often seemed on the verge of a breakdown

Persuasive interactive non-verbal behaviour in embodied conversational agents

Realism for embodied conversational agents (ECAs) requires both visual and behavioural fidelity. One significant area of ECA behaviour, that has to date received little attention, is non-verbal behaviour. Non-verbal behaviour occurs continually in all human-human interactions, and has been shown to be highly important in those interactions. Previous research has demonstrated that people treat media (and therefore ECAs) as real people, and so non-verbal behaviour is also important in the development of ECAs. ECAs that use non-verbal behaviour when interacting with humans or other ECAs will be more realistic, more engaging, and have higher social influence. This thesis gives an in-depth view of non-verbal behaviour in humans followed by an exploration of the potential social influence of ECAs using a novel Wizard of Oz style approach of synthetic ECAs. It is shown that ECAs have the potential to have no less social influence (as measured using a direct measure of behaviour change) than real people and also that it is important that ECAs have visual feedback on their interactants for this social influence to maximised. Throughout this thesis there is a focus on empirical evaluation of ECAs, both as a validation tool and also to provide directions for future research and development. Present ECAs frequently incorporate some form of non-verbal behaviour, but this is quite limited and more importantly not connected strongly to the behaviour of a human interactant. This interactional aspect of non-verbal behaviour is important in human-human interactions and results from the study of the persuasive potential of ECAs support this fact mapping onto human-ECA interactions. The challenges in creating non-verbally interactive ECAs are introduced and by drawing corollaries with robotics control systems development behaviour-based architectures are presented as a solution towards these challenges, and implemented in a prototypical ECA. Evaluation of this ECA using the methodology used previously in this thesis demonstrates that an ECA with non-verbal behaviour that responds to its interactant is rated more positively than an ECA that does not, indicating that directly measurable social influences will be possible with further development

MyRun: balancing design for reflection, recounting and openness in a museum-based participatory platform

Cultural organisations are increasingly looking towards using digital technologies to supplement, augment and extend visitors' experiences of exhibits and museums. In this paper, we describe the design and evaluation of MyRun, a 'participatory platform' for a museum. Our goal with MyRun was to use experience-centered design principles of reflecting, recounting and openness as a basis for engaging visitors in sharing stories about experiences related to a nationally significant cultural event. We undertook a qualitative evaluation of the system based upon observations of its use, the contributions visitors made to the platform, and interviews with 10 visitors. We discuss how visitors approached MyRun, contributed and browsed stories, and the challenges associated with the expectations visitors and curators placed on cultural exhibits. We close by identifying a series of design opportunities for future participatory platforms in museum settings

Synthetic character fidelity through non-verbal behaviour in computer games

Artificial Intelligence in games has historically focused on providing a challenging opponent for a player and narrative development. Scope exists to increase the fidelity of synthetic characters throughout the game to create a more immersive game play experience. This requires both visual and behavioural fidelity, and while graphics are nearing photorealism, synthetic characters' behaviour is still unrealistic. Non-verbal behaviour of synthetic characters has to date received little attention and so the scope and participants of non-verbal behaviour requires identification. We review the range of spatial and task scenarios relevant in a game context, then identify categories of non-verbal behaviour and go on tot summarise their role in communication and propose their incorporation in the design of non-player characters. Finally we review how non-verbal behaviour of synthetic agents might increase immersion for a player and identify interaction techniques that might facilitate non-verbal communication with players and non-players characters alike