VIRTUAL PUPPET SHOWS SOLDIERS HOW TO READ NONVERBAL CUES....On the screen, computer-generated characters shrug, wink, nod, wave or cross their arms as they follow one’s every move with an attentive gaze but it's not a new Nintendo of Xbox video game, nor is it the next computer-generated animated feature!
IT'S NOT JIM HENSON'S PUPPETS:
It's not a Jim Henson puppeteer pulling the strings nor a Disney animator re-creating the expressions, instead its a USC-developed system module called “Social Puppet” pulling the strings.
BEYOND WORDS: -- understanding the non-verbal is life or death!
Once a given character is designed, a simple set of standard commands orchestrates a whole range of nonverbal expressions. The same commands work for any other character in the game.
Human communication is only partly verbal,” said Hannes Högni Vilhjálmsson of the USC Information Sciences Institute, who designed the game. He calls the software an “engine” to generate visual social behavior, and will present it at the AAAS annual meeting in St. Louis Feb. 16-20.
GAMES FOR MILITARY TRAINING: Vilhjálmsson is among the builders of a set of ISI-created videogames called “Tactical Language and Culture” that the armed forces now use to teach language and customs to soldiers. Hundreds of soldiers have trained with “Tactical Iraqi,” while a “Tactical Pashto” is being readied for Afghanistan.
SIMULATION -- control your own character: In the games, a person controls a figure representing themselves, who interacts with other characters animated by artificial intelligence, a specialty at ISI, which is part of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
NONVERBAL CUES IN DIFFERENT CULTURES:
“To introduce players to a culture that is unfamiliar to them,” Vilhjálmsson notes in his presentation, “it is important to have them both observe nonverbal behavior that reflects the culture and have them be able to perform … appropriate behaviors in return.”
GAMES GET SMARTER!Watch for more of this kind of intelligence to be built into mainstream video games and perhaps even in future animated features. Hollywood knows we want to talk back to Kermit or to Tom Cruise!
FOR MORE INFO: Tactical Language and Culture Training .
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