EMMA: an automated intelligent actor in e-drama

ABSTRACT

We report work on adding an improvisational AI actor and 3D emotional animation to an existing edrama program, a system for dramatic improvisation in simple virtual scenarios. The improvisational AI actor has an affect-detection component, aimed at detecting affective aspects of human-controlled characters' textual input. It also makes an appropriate response to stimulate the improvisation based on this affective understanding. A distinctive feature of our work is a focus on the metaphorical ways in which affect is conveyed. Moreover, we have also introduced how the detected affective states activate the animation engine to produce emotional gestures for human-controlled characters. Finally, we report user testing conducted for the AI actor. Our work contributes to the conference themes on affective user interfaces, natural language processing and emotionally believable gesture generation.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.7 Natural Language Processing

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

Keywords:
affect detection, an improvisational AI actor and emotional behavior, metaphorical language