CS547 Human-Computer Interaction Seminar (Seminar on People, Computers, and Design)
Fridays 12:30-1:50 · Gates B01 · Open to the public- 20 years of speakers
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Barbara Hayes Roth
Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory Directed Improvisation by Computer Characters February 3, 1995
"Directed improvisation" is a paradigm for human-computer interaction. Directors (who may be human users or other computer programs) guide the behavior of computer characters with abstract instructions that establish skeletal narrative structures and weak constraints on the desired behaviors. The characters work together to improvise a course of behavior that conforms to the structure, meets the constraints, and achieves other performance objectives. Thus, characters follow directions, but may also enhance performance, while surprising and engaging users with their improvisations along the way. Directed improvisation is similar in spirit to previous work on instructable agents, multi-agent systems, advanced programming languages, and object-oriented simulation. Following this earlier work, directed improvisation aims to employ more abstract directions to guide more discretionary behavior by more complete computer characters. We believe that computer characters capable of performing directed improvisation will be useful elements of diverse applications, especially applications in education, the arts, and entertainment. We are developing a technology that combines a supporting agent architecture with configurable components to facilitate efficient and economical development of a variety of specific characters for different applications. Our approach incoporates media-independent interfaces, so that a given character's "mind" can be embodied in animation, virutal reality, text, or other media. Our current testbed application is a "virtual theater," in which animated characters take direction to improvise episodes of physical and verbal behaviors. To be effective, the characters also must exhibit simple intelligence, life-like qualities, and improvisational expertise. Within the virtual theater, we conceive several specific modes of interaction: animated puppets, animated actors, collaborative playcrafting, improv troupe, improv direction, and interactive story. In all of these modes, directed improvisation offers users (in our case, children) the combined pleasures of directing the creation, re-telling, or re-experiencing of a story, while being delighted by the characters' unpredictable improvisations within the story structure. In addition to its use as an experimental testbed, the virtual theater is a promising paradigm for several kinds of commercial applications: experience-based learning environments, new kinds of computer games, a new medium for artistic self-expression, or a new form for interactive story experience. |
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