Synthetic Actors: Agentbased Autonomous Characters in Virtual Environments

1
Synthetic ActorsAgent-based Autonomous
Characters in Virtual Environments

• Virtual Worlds Simulation Systems
• MV-4473
• Winter Quarter 2000
• Naval Postgraduate School

2
Outline

• Introduction
• Motivation
• Background
• Current Research
• Examples
• Tools, APIs and SDKs

3
Introduction

• Virtual Realities often dont feel real
  because of the almost sterile lack of life.
• Engaging, interactive, autonomous entities and
  characters fill this void.
• Agents are often used because of their ability to
  react and adapt to the user

4
Motivation

• This presentation is intended to familiarize the
  audience with concepts such as Synthetic Actor
  and autonomous agents, and better equip them to
  make decisions when considering incorporation of
  agents into their Virtual Environments.

5
Background

• What is an agent?
• What is a Synthetic Actor?
• What can Synthetic Actors be used for?
• What makes agent-based Synthetic Actors special?
• What are some advantages and disadvantages of
  using agents in VEs?

6
What is an Agent?

• Autonomous software object
• makes decisions
• takes actions
• internal goals
• perceived environment

7
What is a Synthetic Actor?

• A computer-generated entity in a virtual world
• Rendered in real time and acts without direct
  user control
• A user-controlled computer-generated character is
  usually referred to as an Avitar.

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Uses of Synthetic Actors

• Teacher
• Guide
• Companion
• Assistant
• Entertainer
• Opponent
• Extra (background character)

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What makes agent-based Synthetic Actors special?

• Adaptable
• Unpredictable
• Interesting
• Life-like

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Advantages / Disadvantages of agents in VE

• Advantages
• Adds interesting, un-scripted action
• Makes each experience different
• Disadvantages
• Overhead of sensing / action selection algorithm
• Relatively new field of research

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Examples of Virtual Agents

• Pedagogical - STEVE
• Companion - ALIVE
• Assistant - Virtual Personalities
• Entertainer - IMPROV
• Opponent - Quake
• Extra - Boids

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STEVEUSC Information Sciences Institute

• USC / ISI is developing a pedagogical agent
  called Steve (Soar Training Expert for Virtual
  Environments) that supports the learning process.
  Steve agents can demonstrate skills to students,
  answer student questions, watch the students as
  they perform the tasks, and give advice if the
  students run into difficulties. Multiple Steve
  agents can inhabit a virtual environment, along
  with multiple students. This helps make it
  possible to train students on team tasks.

http//www.
13
ALIVEMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Media Lab

• The Artificial Life Interactive Video Environment
  (ALIVE) is a virtual reality system where people
  can interact with virtual creatures without being
  constrained by headsets, gog-gles, or special
  sensing equipment.
• The system is based on a magic mirror metaphore
  a person in the ALIVE space sees their own image
  on a large-screen TV as if in a mirror.
  Autonomous, animated characters join the user's
  own image in the reflected world.

http//alive.www.media.mit.edu/projects/alive/
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Virtual Personalities

• A Verbot is a Verbal Software Robot -- a
  Verbally enhanced Chatterbot --a virtual
  character in a computerized world with an
  artificial personality. They have a finite
  ability to understand and speak English now --
  other languages later -- through Natural Language
  technology. They are the most advanced form of
  Cyberbot known. But Verbots are more than that,
  they're personalities...and those personalities
  will be less artificial with each release.

http//www.vperson.com/
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IMPROVNew York University Media Research Lab
(NYU / MRL)

• A set of tools and techniques which make it
  possible to create applications involving
  animated agents that behave, interact and respond
  to user input in ways that convey mood and
  emotion.
• The goal was to make improvisational animation
  accessible to experts with minimal expertise in
  animation and dramatic performance, and to enable
  researchers and educators to exploit these
  technologies without relying on expensive
  production efforts.

http//www.mrl.nyu.edu/improv/improv.html
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Quake

• Bots can be added to the game to serve as
  opponents for a single player or as extras for
  multiple players. When more than one Bot is
  added, they will actual engage each other as well
  as the player. Bots are given a variable skill
  level and have a limited sensing range. Whether
  designed as agents or not, they meet the basic
  prerequisites to be included as agents.

http//www.mrl.nyu.edu/improv/improv.html
17
Boids

• In 1986 Craig Reynolds made a computer model of
  coordinated animal motion such as bird flocks and
  fish schools. It was based on three dimensional
  computational geometry of the sort normally used
  in computer animation or computer aided design.
  He called the software boids.

http//www.red.com/cwr/boids.html
18
EverQuestSony Computer Entertainment America,
Inc.

• An RPG designed from the ground up to be a
  massively online game. The world of EverQuest was
  created to support over 1,000 players
  simultaneously per server.Real 3D environment,
  with multiple camera views. Switch from exploring
  in first person to any number of top down views
  to facilitate tactical combat.Truly polygonal
  characters, both players and NPCs no sprites
  here.

http//www.station.sony.com/everquest/
19
Diamond ParkMitsubishi Electric Research
Laboratories (MERL)

• In addition to its human visitors, Diamond Park
  contains a resident population of
  computer-simulated robots ranging from the
  hoverbus driver to the velodrome official. This
  robotic staff consists of animated 3-D figures
  that use simple speech and gestures to provide
  guidance to human visitors. For example, the race
  official monitors all competitive biking in the
  park's Olympic-scale velodrome, where visitors
  can compete with one another or race against
  computer-controlled bicyclists.

http//www.merl.com/projects/dp/tour/index.html
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Nintendo64 SuperMario

• Examples of autonomous characters include
• Mushrooms
• Ba-bombs
• Bowzer
• Other villains and helpers

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CyberTown

• Sample dialog
• Cin_intj hi
• Dog Woof, welcome to Cins. Whats your
  personality type?
• Cin_intj intj dog you know me
• Dog Really. Wow. I love eye en tee jays. Im
  an INTJ, too.

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Current Research on Virtual Agents

• MIT Media Lab
• Synthetic Characters group (SWAMPED!)
• Autonomous Agent and Vision and Modeling group
  (ALIVE)
• CMU School of Computer Science
• Center for Automated Learning and Discovery (Oz
  Project)
• NYU Media Research Lab
• IMPROV

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Current Research on Virtual Agents (cont.)

• Microsoft
• User Interface group (Persona Project)
• Virtual Worlds group (Virtual Worlds Platform)
• Computer Graphics Lab (LIG) at the Swiss Federal
  Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne
• FNRS
• Recently completed HUMANOID

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Current Research on Virtual Agents (cont.)

• USC Information Sciences Institute
• Virtual Environment for Training (VET) (STEVE)
• Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory (MERL)
• Human-Computer Interaction group (COLLAGEN)

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Naval Postgraduate Schoolhttp//www.npsnet.org/n
psnet/

• NPSNET
• The focus of the NPSNET Research Group is on the
  complete breadth of human-computer interaction
  and software technology for implementing large
  scale virtual environments (LSVEs) for defense
  and entertainment industry application.
• Were good at LSVEs Now lets put some
  Synthetic Actors in them!