Jacquelyn Ford Morie

Toward the holodeck: integrating graphics, sound, character and story

We describe an initial prototype of a holodeck- like environment that we have created for the Mission Rehearsal Exercise Project. The goal of the project is to create an experience learning system where the participants are immersed in an environment where they can encounter the sights, sounds, and circumstances of real-world scenarios. Virtual humans act as characters and coaches in an interactive story with pedagogical goals.

Ada and grace: toward realistic and engaging virtual museum guides

To increase the interest and engagement of middle school students in science and technology, the InterFaces project has created virtual museum guides that are in use at the Museum of Science, Boston. The characters use natural language interaction and have near photoreal appearance to increase and presents reports from museum staff on visitor reaction.

A Virtual Tour Guide for Virtual Worlds

In this paper we present an implementation of a embodied conversational agent that serves as a virtual tour guide in Second Life. We show how we combined the abilities of a conversational agent with navigation in the world and present some preliminary evaluation results.

Performing in (virtual) spaces: Embodiment and being in virtual environments

Abstract This paper focuses on how the body has been recontextualised in the age of digital technology, especially through the phenomenon of Virtual Reality, and specifically on fully immersive VR environments made as art or performative installations. It discusses the progress\ion in form and function from other digital media or ‘cybermedia’ to fully immersive virtual environments (VEs). This paper attempts to explicate the specialised and intrinsic qualities of ‘Being’ in immersive VEs, and how it impacts both the experience of the embodied person in the virtual environment, and our thinking about everyday reality. The unique state of Being in immersive VEs has created a paradigm shift in what humans are now able to experience, and affects how we understand our embodied selves in an increasingly digital world. Because of this, the contributions of visual and performance artists to VEs continued development is key to how we will know and comprehend ourselves in the near and far future as creatures existing in both the physical and the digital domains. The paper draws upon twenty years as a professional Virtual Reality ‘maker’ who has trained in both Computer Science and in Art, and finds fascinating affinities between these disciplines in the space of the VE where people and performers interact in new embodied modalities.

Virtual Humans for Learning

Virtual humans are computer-generated characters designed to look and behave like real people. Studies have shown that virtual humans can mimic many of the social effects that one finds in human-human interactions such as creating rapport, and people respond to virtual humans in ways that are similar to how they respond to real people. We believe that virtual humans represent a new metaphor for interacting with computers, one in which working with a computer becomes much like interacting with a person and this can bring social elements to the interaction that are not easily supported with conventional interfaces. We present two systems that embody these ideas. The first, the Twins are virtual docents in the Museum of Science, Boston, designed to engage visitors and raise their awareness and knowledge of science. The second SimCoach, uses an empathetic virtual human to provide veterans and their families with information about PTSD and depression.

Extending the Reach of Health Care for Obesity and Diabetes Using Virtual Worlds

Todays epidemic of obesity and diabetes poses challenges to health care similar to those facing soldiers who return with postdeployment mental health issues. These include geographic barriers, social stigma, and the need for behavioral change. Researchers at University of Southern Californias Institute for Creative Technologies are adapting their extensive experience in technological solutions for training to techniques that can aid veterans in need. These techniques show promise for concerns in the growing crisis of “diabesity.” Virtual reality (VR) has already demonstrated itself as an impactful treatment method for several behavioral and mental health domains. Virtual worlds, the successor technology of original VR, inherited many of its predecessors strengths but also presents the new affordances of accessibility, social connectivity, and avatar usage, which pave the way toward future treatment options on a broader scale.

Sustainable Play Toward a New Games Movement for the Digital Age

This article suggests a revisit of the New Games movement, formed by Stewart Brand and others in the early 1970s in the United States as a response to the Vietnam War, against a backdrop of dramatic social and economic change fueled by a looming energy crisis, civil rights, feminism, and unhealthy widespread drug abuse. Like-minded contemporaries R. Buckminster Fuller (World Game), Robert Smithson (Spiral Jetty), and Christo and Jean-Claude (Valley Curtain) responded in kind to these environmental and sociopolitical quandaries with their “earthworks.” As digital game designers and theorists embark on developing new methods to address the creative crisis in mainstream game production, against a similar backdrop of global climate change, a controversial war, political upheaval, and complex gender issues, the authors propose a reexamination of the New Games movement and its methods as a means of constructing shared contexts for meaningful play in virtual and real-world spaces.

Embodied Conversational Agent Avatars in Virtual Worlds: Making Today’s Immersive Environments More Responsive to Participants

Intelligent agents in the form of avatars in networked virtual worlds (VWs) are a new form of embodied conversational agent (ECA). They are still a topic of active research, but promise soon to rival the sophistication of virtual human agents developed on stand-alone platforms over the last decade. Such agents in today’s VWs grew out of two lines of historical research: Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence. Their merger forms the basis for today’s persistent 3D worlds occupied by intelligent characters serving a wide range of purposes. We believe ECA avatars will help to enable VWs to achieve a higher level of meaningful interaction by providing increased engagement and responsiveness within environments where people will interact with and even develop relationships with them.

Warriors' Journey: A Path to Healing through Narrative Exploration

Abstract The Warriors’ Journey is an interactive narrative experience that is part of the online, virtual world healing space of the Coming Home Project (www.cominghomecenter.org) at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. This project is exploring new ways to reach veterans who are returning from recent conflicts and who often have mental health issues or difficulty fitting back into their home communities. We are looking at the affordances of online 3D virtual worlds to address some of the issues that may prevent or deter veterans from getting the help they need. We are exploring the use of specific therapies within the virtual world space, as well as social and enrichment activities designed around the needs of this group. The Warriors’ Journey is one such activity that engages participants in stories to emphasize and reinforce common ideals of honorable warriors throughout history. After experiencing these stories, participants are then encouraged to construct their own warrior’s story within the Coming Home space. It is hoped that such activities may help contribute to a more positive sense of self-esteem, a restructured life narrative, and a feeling of control over the stresses incurred during their service to their country.

Maintaining Psycho-Social Health on the Way to Mars and Back

In future long duration Mars exploration missions, network limitations and the lack of real-time communication capabilities will impact various aspects of space crew performance as well as behavioral health. Studies in ground-based analogs of Isolated and Confined Environments (ICE) such as Antarctica have identified sensory and social monotony as threats to crew psychological well-being. Given the importance of behavioral health to mission success and the extreme conditions of space travel, new methods of maintaining psycho-social health and social connections to support systems are critical. We describe ANSIBLE -- A Network of Social Interactions for Bilateral Life Enhancement. ANSIBLE leverages Virtual Environments (VEs) to deliver evidence based wellness promoting strategies and socially intelligent Virtual Agents (VAs) as tools to facilitate asynchronous human-human communication, and counteract behavioral health challenges associated with prolonged isolation and deep space exploration.