André Neves

iAIML: a Mechanism to Treat Intentionality in AIML Chatterbots

This paper presents iAIML, a mechanism to treat intentional information based on AIML, a state-of-the-art technology in chatterbot development. Our main goal was to improve dialogues with AIML chatterbots. iAIML adds structure to AIML bases, incorporating intentions and rules used in sentence interpretation and generation. We adopted as linguistic base the conversational analysis theory (CAT), which considers intentionality in adjacent pairs in dialogue, facilitating the establishment of consistent dialogues between chatterbots and users. Tests with the implemented solution showed feasibility of the proposed approach. This is an original work with several contributions, such as the innovative and effective use of CAT, and a consistent modular structure of the iAIML base, favoring reuse and maintenance

Persona-AIML: an architecture for developing chatterbots with personality

This work presents the Persona-AIML architecture for the creation of chatterbots in AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language) with personality. It is a flexible architecture that allows the use of different models of personality in the construction of chatterbots. Tests with the prototype revealed satisfactory and very encouraging results.

Adding Personality to Chatterbots Using the Persona-AIML Architecture

Recent studies highlight the importance of personality for improving human-machine interaction. Attempts of including personal- ity in chatterbots have not been satisfactory regarding the coherence of the chatterbots behavior, the flexibility and reusability of the person- ality model. This work presents Persona-AIML, an original architecture for the creation of chatterbots in AIML with personality. It is a flexible architecture that allows the use of different models of personality, de- scribed in terms of five elements: traits, attitudes, mood, emotions and physical states. Recent experiments validate the reusability and extensi- bility of our architecture to build chatterbots with different personalities, however using the same categories base. The implemented chatterbots demonstrated a satisfactory level of coherence in their behavior.

Exergames: the role of ergonomics and design in helping to control childhood obesity through physical and functional exercise program

In the area of the design and physiotherapy, the using of virtual technologies for immersion of users are spreading. And this affirmation extends to several areas of knowledge. In games, the quote is, resources are being used to work cognitive skills, attention, memory, among other factors beside the children. Currently, at the expense of usability, low cost, virtual technologies of perception and interaction, as Nintendo Wii, X-Box 360, among others, arises therefore a new class of games called Exergames, which is the union of physical activity the game. This fact gives users the development of sensory and motor skills through virtual reality mechanisms suitable for certain needs. This literature review aimed to provide an overview of the current context of Exergames, especially in use for controlling childhood obesity, which is growing alarmingly, with some features, applications and possibilities for use at the design and other areas such as physiotherapy.

The design in the development of exergames: a new game for the contribute to control childhood obesity

Obesity is increasing alarmingly worldwide, especially in childrens audience, due to the adoption of sedentary habits. The exergames are a new class of digital games that have arisen over the possible use of technology, low cost, to unite physical activity to video games such as Nintendo Wii, X-Box 360, among others. And these have been gaining ground due to immersion of users, working their cognitive skills, attention and memory. This study presents a new game, the PEGGO developed by Federal University of Pernambuco, with data supporting the use for this type of game in order to contribute to help control childhood obesity.

Interactive doodles: a comparative analysis of the usability and playability of google trademark games between 2010 and 2012

By using artistic mutations, called Doodles, Google has been commemorating important events and personalities. This fun approach started with still images, evolved to increasingly complex interactions, and has resulted in games based on the configurations of its logo. Thus, the company which was born in the digital world has introduced a new interactive approach to its logo in cyberspace, thus offering new experiences to the user. This article sets out to present a comparative analysis of usability and playability of five interactive Doodles by applying the RITE (Rapid Interation Testing and Evaluation) approach so as to investigate ergonomic criteria of invitation, suitability immediate feedback and user control.

Intelligent Tools for Cooperative Learning in the Internet

The FIACI project aimed to develop a methodology for the construction of software tools to give support to cooperative learning in the Internet. These tools are based on the Intelligent Agents and objects technology, and they are being applied in the construction of virtual learning environments based on the Web. These environments can be used as a complement to ordinary classes as well as in distance learning. We present here a general description of the project, as well as the main obtained results.

The role of parametrization in the multimedia authoring process

The development of multimedia presentations has become increasingly popular among professionals of different areas such as designers, publishers, executives, etc. A great deal of authoring systems are mostly focused on the final product: the presentation, providing many tools to help in its elaboration. This targeting causes most of the systems, to a certain extend, to leave behind the authoring process and, therefore, the author himself, with no adequate support for the design of his/her presentation, rendering the authoring task harder if not complicated at least. This problem is even more acute knowing that most users of authoring tools are professionals from areas such as the arts, film industry, education, medicine, etc., with little or no experience in programming. It is this lack of concern with authors and the authoring process that has led us to develop a new authoring paradigm totally focused on the author. Many aspects of the authoring and design process have been studied. A new phase has been identified, namely, the presentation parametrization.

Comparing Human Against Computer Generated Designs: New Possibilities for Design Activity Within Agile Projects

Our research explores the possibility of using intelligent agents to automate some of the design activity and evaluate if this kind of tool can perform as good as a human designer would. Thus, we present an app called Design Thinking Canvas Autonomus that supports and automates the creation of design concepts. The justification to do so comes from the context of design activity being executed within agile projects. From the most prominent themes of this conjunction, Little Design Up-Front stands outs as one of the most important. It corresponds to agile projects’ need of defining a clear objective, while avoiding unnecessary waste in the long run. In order to test if Autonomus could help addressing this need, we tested its performance against a human designer. The results showed that there was not a statistically significant difference between Design Thinking Canvas Autonomus and its human counterpart in all considered criteria. Actually, for suitability factor, Autonomus had a statistically proven advantage compared to human designs (p-value of 0.037), according to specialist designers’ evaluation. It establishes a new frame of reference for agile projects, as the cost and effort to execute Autonomus is significantly lower than a human process.

Newsgames: Gameplay and Usability in Simulation Games

Newsgames are a game format that use the news as a basis for constructing their narrative. Observations made between 2012 and 2014 indicated a gap in the observation of gameplay and usability of this kind of game, which has arisen as a different format of publishing information. The objective of this study was to analyze the usability and playability of newsgames produced since 2000, for which three simulation newsgames were chosen: Iced - I can end deportation, Heartsaver and The Candidate. The analysis was based on studies by Niesen and Preece and Rogers, who observed users interacting with newgames. From the results obtained we intend to investigate other genres of newsgames, with a view to improving the game experience.