.:
Mirage: Conversational Embodied Agent :.
Mirage is an embodied
virtual agent that serves as a simple virtual guide to the lab. Mirage is capable
of engaging the user in a simple conversation, maintaining eye contact, informing
the user about objects in the lab as well as giving the user a simple news summary
(curtesy of NewsBlaster).
This system is built using the "constructionist methodology" to showcase
that it is possible to create a relatively complex embodied agent system with
an inexperienced team of 5 students in just 3 months.
- Hrvoje
Benko
- Denis Abramov
- Andrew Arnold
- Sameer Maskey
- Aruchunan Vaseekaran
- Kristinn R. Thórisson, advisor
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Image showing our embodied agent pointing at the "spaceframe"
structure, giving information about the object and maintaining the eye
contact with the user.
This image has been enhanced for clarity. The see-through HMD that
we used is much darker in real life, however this image portrays pretty
accurately what the user would be seeing when interacting with Mirage.
|
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Mirage System
architecture showing different modules and their interaction. The modules
shown in are proxy modules facilitating message communication with the
Psyclone blackboard system. |
Thorisson, K., Benko, H., Abramov, D., Arnold,
A., Maskey, S., Vaseekaran, A., "Constructionist Design Methodology
for Interactive Intelligences", To appear in AI Magazine.
Summer 2004. 
[copyright]
Full quicktime movie 
(64MB).
