Week 4

Week 4: 2006/9/18 - 2006/9/22

Anticipatory AI and Compelling Characters

Blumberg, Bruce. “ Anticipatory AI and Compelling Characters.” Gamasutra 3 Feb. 2006. 15 Sept. 2006.

Blumberg discusses what makes synthetic characters contain a “sense of an inner life.” He defines this sense of inner life as low-level motion (eye movements, etc.) and behavior. This gives the observer insight into what the character is going to do next and how it feels about it. To execute this he suggests anticipatory AI that supports anticipatory behaviors. Blumberg proposes a series of three ways to do this. First is making the character's perceptions perceivable, meaning having it orient to the sensory inputs it's receiving such as sounds or smells. Next he covers expected expectations; an anticipatory action, the action itself, the character's expect ion on how the action will play out, and the end of the action. These actions communicate to the observer what the character is going to do, it's expectations about what it's about to do, and finally how the character feels about the outcome of the action. Lastly, Blumberg talks about making upcoming changes in motivational states perceivable. These are the actions the character performs to communicate to the observer that it is about to change it's motivations and what the observer can expect. Where most other AI systems focus more on reaction, Blumberg proposes anticipation to make the characters more sentient.

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The EMOTE Model for Effort and Shape

Chi, Diane, et. al. “The EMOTE Model for Effort and Shape.” Proc. of 27th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 2000, New York, pp. 173-182.

This article primarily talks about how EMOTE (Expressive MOTion Engine) works; the underlying mechanics, equations, and decision making the engine goes through to produce movement. What I find more interesting is what EMOTE actually does and how they chose to design it. It is based off of the Effort and Shape components of the Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) which also consists of Body, Space and Relationship. Chi et. al. devised a system that uses the Effort and Shape parameters, allowing for specification, to independently modify different parts of the body. Key poses are used as specifications for the movements of a gesture. Key poses can be extracted from motion libraries, procedurally generated motions, or motions captured from live performers. This system will generate more natural synthetic gestures that should correspond to the character's emotive state.

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Player Character Design Facilitating Emotional Depth in MMORPGs

Eladhari, Mirjam, and Craig Lindley. Player Character Design Facilitating Emotional Depth in MMORPGs. Proc. of the Digital Games Research Conference 2003, University of Utrecht, 4-6 November 2003.

This article discusses how to progress emotion in a player character (PC), the character a user plays in a video game. As an ongoing research project Eladhari and Lindley, using the Purgatory Engine have created the Ouroboros project which is a dramatic role playing game they are experimenting with making the PC a semi-autonomous agent. The things I found most interesting about their implementation is the contextual gesture system and the mind system. Contextual gestures are based on the state of mind as well as other characters and the world. The mind system provides the character's personality, emotions, moods, and sentiments. These aspects act independently but influence each other determining the character's goals and gestures.

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Manipulation of Non-Verbal Interaction Style And Demographic Embodiment to Increase Anthropomorphic Computer Character Credibility

Cowell, Andrew J., and Kay M. Stanney. “Manipulations of Non-Verbal Interaction Style And Demographic Embodiment to Increase Anthropomorphic Computer Character Credibility.” International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 62(2), 281-306. 2005.

Cowell and Stanney discuss non-verbal behaviors in synthetic characters and how to generate a credible response from a user about the characters. They recognize the majority of non-verbal behavior research just categorizes behaviors as opposed to studying how they interact with each other. Branching off of De Meuse's taxonomy of non-verbal cues, behavioral actions versus those that are not, and how much control one has over the cue, Cowell and Stanney determine preferences for a character's personal appearance and demographic. They further break non-verbal behaviors down into two ranks. The first rank consists of facial expression, eye contact, and paralanguage. The second rank includes gestures and posture. While both ranks are important, they found that the first rank was more crucial to creating a comfortable, trustworthy character.