Towards a ‘Smart’ Collaborative Virtual Environment and Multi-agent Approach to Designing an Intelligent Virtual Agent

Intelligent virtual agent behaviour is a crucial element of any virtual environment application as it essentially brings the environment to life, introduces believability and realism and enables complex interactions and evolution over time. However, the development of mechanisms for virtual agent perception and action is neither a trivial nor a straight-forward task. In this paper we present a model of perception and action for intelligent virtual agents that meets specific requirements and can as such be systematically implemented, can seamlessly and transparently integrate with knowledge representation and intelligent reasoning mechanisms, is highly independent of virtual world implementation specifics, and enables virtual agent portability and reuse.

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Collaborative Virtual Environment to Simulate on-the-Job Aircraft Inspection Training Aided by Hand Pointing

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193120504902521 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 49 (25) ◽

pp. 2216-2220

Author(s):

S. Sadasivan ◽

R. Rele ◽

J. S. Greenstein ◽

A. K. Gramopadhye ◽

J. Masters ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Virtual Environment ◽

Visual Inspection ◽

Training Environment ◽

Virtual Training ◽

Collaborative Virtual Environment ◽

Feedback Training ◽

Inspection Process ◽

Safety And Reliability ◽

The One ◽

Inspection Performance

The human inspector performing visual inspection of an aircraft is the backbone of the aircraft inspection process, a vital element in assuring safety and reliability of an air transportation system. Training is an effective strategy for improving their inspection performance. A drawback of present-day on-the-job (OJT) training provided to aircraft inspectors is the limited exposure to different defect types. Previous studies have shown offline feedback training using virtual reality (VR) simulators to be effective in improving visual inspection performance. This research aims at combining the advantages of VR technology that includes exposure to a wide variety of defects and the one-on-one tutoring approach of OJT by implementing a collaborative virtual training environment. In an immersive collaborative virtual environment (CVE), avatars are used to represent the co-participants. In a CVE, information of where the trainer is pointing can be provided to a trainee as visual deictic reference (VDR). This study evaluates the effectiveness of simulating on-the-job training in a CVE for aircraft inspection training, providing VDR slaved to a 3D mouse used by the trainer for pointing. The results of this study show that the training was effective in improving inspection performance.

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Real-time haptic rendering of a high-resolution volumetric deformable object in a collaborative virtual environment

Advanced Robotics ◽

10.1163/156855305774307022 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 19 (9) ◽

pp. 951-975 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Sang-Youn Kim ◽

Jinah Park ◽

Dong-Soo Kwon

Keyword(s):

High Resolution ◽

Real Time ◽

Virtual Environment ◽

Haptic Rendering ◽

Collaborative Virtual Environment ◽

Deformable Object

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A New Partitioning Method Based on AOI Model Matching in CVE Systems

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.241-244.3116 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 241-244 ◽

pp. 3116-3120

Author(s):

Xiao Mei Hu ◽

Biao Wang

Keyword(s):

Virtual Environment ◽

Virtual World ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Model Matching ◽

Collaborative Virtual Environment ◽

Area Of Interest ◽

Key Issues ◽

Partitioning Problem ◽

Server Architecture

Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) system supports a large number of users to explore a virtual world and interact with each other through networks, so one of the key issues in the design of scalable CVE systems is the partitioning problem. Existing partitioning algorithms in CVE systems based on multiple-server architecture, in our opinion, hardly consider the communication character of virtual environment. In this paper, we propose a new partitioning method based on area of interest (AOI) model matching to improve the quality of partitioning. The experimental results show preliminarily that our partitioning approach based on AOI model matching does decrease the traffic among the servers in the system and improve the partitioning performance.

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Elaboración de un ambiente virtual colaborativo usando eXe Learning para la enseñanza de Ciencias Naturales [Elaborating of a collaborative-virtual-environment by using eXe Learning for teaching of Natural Sciences]

Ventana informatica ◽

10.30554/ventanainform.31.520.2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Andrea Henao Bonilla ◽

Luis Octavio González Salcedo

Keyword(s):

Virtual Environment ◽

Educational Institution ◽

Natural Sciences ◽

User Group ◽

Educational Strategies ◽

Collaborative Virtual Environment ◽

Subject Knowledge ◽

Palabras Clave ◽

Teaching Unit ◽

Teaching Learning

Resumen A pesar del avance importante en el uso de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) en la enseñanza de la educación media, la literatura muestra un amplio desarrollo en matemáticas, pero una gran limitación en otras temáticas como las ciencias naturales y las sociales. En el presente trabajo, se describe el desarrollo de una unidad didáctica basada en un ambiente virtual colaborativo usando eXe Learning, e incorporando diferentes estrategias educativas, con el objetivo de apoyar la enseñanza del curso de Biología, siendo el tema central la Reproducción en los Seres Vivos. Dos grupos de octavo grado, de una Institución Educativa, fueron evaluados sobre el conocimiento del tema mencionado. El análisis de varianza muestra que el grupo usuario del aplicativo obtiene un mejor rendimiento académico sobre el grupo patrón. Una evaluación tanto del aplicativo como de su Manual de Usuario, mostró que ambos son de fácil entendimiento y uso. Se concluye que las estrategias metodológicas basadas en TIC son un apoyo importante en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje en el curso de Biología. Palabras Clave: Ambiente Virtual Colaborativo, TIC, eXe Learning, Ciencias Naturales, Biología. Abstract Despite significant progress in the use of Communication and Information Technology (CIT) in teaching secondary education, the literature shows a wide development in mathematics, but a limitation on other issues such as the social and natural sciences. In this paper, we describe the development of a teaching unit based on a collaborative-virtual-environment using by eXe Learning, and incorporating different educational strategies, in order to support the teaching of biology course, being the central theme in living beings reproduction. Two groups of eighth grade, of an educational institution, were evaluated on the above subject knowledge. The analysis of variance showed that the application user group obtained better academic performance over the non-user group. An evaluation both Applicative and its User’s Manual, showed that they are both easy to understand and use. It was concluded that the methodologies based on ICT are an important support in the biology course’s teaching-learning process. Keywords: Collaborative-virtual-environment, ICT, eXe Learning, Natural Sciences, Biology.

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