Being belivable, not realistic

Amusement

Javier Segovia
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid
fsegovia@fi.upm.es

So far the Amusement project has focused on the development of credible personalities for avatars (virtual projections of users). We have explored the possibility of casting gestures and behaviours for avatars using an evolutionary technique that maximises co-operation between an avatar and its user, as well as between users. On the basis of these research findings, we have developed a number of games. Our results have been presented at numerous international workshops and conferences.

A screenshot of Amuse

To test our results and the reactions of users, we have created a virtual place called the Amusement Centre. And in order to open the project up to a greater audience, we have been running this Centre as Amuse and Amuse2 at the Active Worlds universe, one of the most extended virtual worlds on the Internet, since December 1998. Every day over 20.000 users log in to the Active Worlds Universe, and many of those visit Amuse. As a result we have had more than 680.000 potential users in the time span of five months! That's a big challenge, and our next milestone concerns finding the best way to work with believable personalities and avatars with so many users. We also want to extend the range of possibilities for Avatar personalities and expressions, and reduce the time it takes to evolve gestures and behaviours, as well as the length of the procedures involved.

In short, the time has come for Amusement to experiment with the system on a large scale.

Amusement web site: perca.ls.fi.upm.es/amusement/index.html