Virtual Worlds Forum

Hearing any avatar described as 'near-human' should set off warning bells in anyone with a healthy degree of cynicism towards new virtual technologies, but a new virtual teacher called Eve created by researchers at New Zealand's Massey University is nevertheless full of potential. It's described as an "affective tutoring system", which basically means the avatar can adapt to the reaction of the child she's teaching - including body language and facial expressions. Eve was developed for one-to-one teaching of maths to eight-year-olds, but obviously could be adapted for other subjects and age groups too in the future. Eve can also ask questions, give feedbacks, and show emotion of her own (I wonder if she can get angry...). "With rising demand for long-distance learning and online tutoring, a computer programme capable of detecting human emotions may become a critical teaching tool," says lead scientist Dr Hossein Sarrafzadeh. "When we interact with people we expect them to take note of our feelings and reactions. Soon we will be able to expect the same from a computer." I'm quite interested in the further applications of this kind of technology within virtual worlds and games. For example, could it one day be used in games to provide more realistic reactions from non-playing characters (NPCs)? Or for bots within virtual worlds to react more realistically to users? But the current focus of the research on e-learning is probably a sensible one, so it remains to be seen whether it will expand to these other areas. (via Physorg)