Walter L. Johnson

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.

Task oriented software understanding

The main factors that affect software understanding are the complexity of the problem solved by the program, the program text, the users mental ability and experience and the task being performed. The paper describes a planning approach solution to the software understanding problem that focuses on the users task and expertise. First, user questions about software artifacts have been studied and the most commonly asked questions are identified. These questions are organized into a question model and procedures for answering them are developed. Then, the patterns in user questions while performing certain tasks have been studied and these patterns are used to build generic task models. The explanation system uses these task models in several ways. The task model, along with a user model, is used to generate explanations tailored to the users task and expertise. In addition, the task model allows the system to provide explicit task support in its interface.