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© 2009 www.daden.co.uk Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars as Characters in Virtual Worlds David Burden Daden Limited Stuart Slater University of Wolverhampton

Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

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How Daden have implemented Wolverhampton University's E-AI architecture to drive avatars in Second Life and model emotional response

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Page 1: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Emotionally Responsive Robotic

Avatars asCharacters in Virtual

Worlds

David BurdenDaden Limited

Stuart SlaterUniversity of

Wolverhampton

Page 2: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Evolving UI Paradigms

Teletype

Character VDU

Windows

Audio-Visual

VirtualWorlds

Page 3: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Non-Player Characters (NPCs)

Task focussed Usually no life beyond

the user Privileged access to

information Common in

MMORPGs, less common in Virtual Worlds

Page 4: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Virtual Worlds

Socially focussed Can be persistent Access the world on the

same basis as a human Visually can be identical

to a human user's avatar

Roles include receptionists/greeters, salesmen, actors, tutors

Page 5: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Emotional Chatbots

Given that computer controlled avatars (robotars) can access all of the gesture and emotional expressions of a human controlled avatar, how important is the use of such emotions with computer controlled avatars?

Page 6: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Altair Robotar Architecture

libsecondlife altair #2

Second LifeServers

ASML/AAML via web service

Perl API Bus

Human User

BotIF altair #1

Other Engines

Emotion Engine

NavigationEngine

Discourse AIML

Chatbot Engine

Web Services

Server (on web) (Perl)

PC or Server (on web) (C#)

SL Interface Discourse RDF

Engine

Page 7: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

E-AI Architecture

Developed by University of Wolverhampton

Followed assessment of CogAff7, Emile8,SOAR9 and Tok10

Grounded in psychology and psychology research and models

Intended for developers who already have a broader bot architecture

Page 8: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Emotions Modelled

Happy Sad Fear Disgust Anger Surprise/Startle

Page 9: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

E-AI Architecture

Page 10: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Previous Implementations

Quake-3 combat bots

Over 300 combat situations

Got around 20% less kills, won a below average (almost half) number of matches

Results clearly supported the assumption that the emotionally enhanced bots, performed less well in combat situations.

Lack of combat effectiveness was partly attributed to the e-Bot running away from combat situations when experiencing fear, and often froze for a second (startle response) when an attacking bot came round a corner.

Page 11: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

E-AI Architecture with Altair

Object and avatar appearance/ disappearance(ASML)

1. Surprise & Startle vs EAD2. Explicit vs AIML3. Implicit vs EAD/Chat Lookup=> AEML

Avatar expressions/ gesture/movement/chat(AAML)

Not yet modelled

Not yet modelled

Fuzzy mixing of emotional states=> AEML

Reason for last state stored, and accessible from AIML

Page 12: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Additional Features

High Road vs Low Road Low-road (“gut”) response implemented close to

avatar in C#/BotIF High-road (“considered”) response implemented in

AIML, other side of a web service Moods

Each new emotion effects the on-going mood Moods have half-lives and decay over time

Habituation With repeated exposure the response to an emotional

stimulus can decrease/increase Each EAD trigger has an habituation factor

Page 13: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Learnt Behaviour

Manual EAD Creation Time consuming No guarantee objects will have the right name Not scalable to “true” AI

Bot Learning Programme only “fundamental” responses, eg:

“Be fearful of things that hurt you” “Like things that give you money”

Bot then builds EAD as it experiences things in the world

Page 14: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Demonstration Video

Page 15: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

User Evaluation - Provisional

2 sessions of 10 – 16 students (Computer and Games courses)

Session 1:

Evaluate robotar with/without emotional gestures/expressions, but same chat responses

Most noted some difference Majority preferred “emotional” bot

Session 2:

Evaluate robotar with emotional expression and chat responses and without expression/chat responses

Almost all noted some difference Clear majority preferred “emotional” bot

Page 16: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Conclusions

Virtual world robotars provide a greater challenge (and opportunity) than game NPCs

The E-AI architecture is a useful way of modelling emotions in avatars

E-AI can be used to support habituation and learnt behaviour

Initial user evaluation suggests that users prefer interacting with a more “emotional” avatar

Page 17: Emotionally Responsive Robotic Avatars in Virtual Worlds

© 2009 www.daden.co.uk

Emotionally Responsive Robotic

Avatars asCharacters in Virtual

Worlds

David BurdenDaden Limited

Stuart SlaterUniversity of

Wolverhampton

[email protected] [email protected]