A flexible platform for building applications with life-like characters

ABSTRACT

During the last years, an increasing number of R&D projects has started to deploy life-like characters for presentation tasks in a diverse range of application areas, including, for example, E-Commerce, E-learning, and help systems. Depending on factors, such as the degree of interactivity and the number of the deployed characters, different architectures have been proposed for system implementation. In this contribution, we first analyse a number of existing user interfaces with presentation characters from an architectural point of view. We then introduce the MIAU platform and illustrate by means of illustrated generation examples how MIAU can be used for the realization of character applications with different conversational settings. Finally, we sketch a number of potential application fields for the MIAU platform

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INDEX TERMS

Primary 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)
          Subjects: Interaction styles (e.g., commands, menus, forms, direct manipulation)

General Terms:
Human Factors

Keywords:
conversational embodied characters, intelligent systems for multimedia presentation, interface agents