Technology Trends

Researchers at the University of Buffalo (UB) are producing immersive virtual reality (VR) dramas in which the users are given some goals at the beginning and are interacting with ’self-aware’ computational agents. The UB Reporter writes that they are putting a new face on ‘user-friendly’ VR environments. They already created a psychodrama called “The Trial The Trail” in which “the user is given two companions named Filopat and Patofil and told that at the end of her experience she will get her heart’s desire.” And because the software agents are continuously improving and ‘improvising’ around human users, the show is different every time. I don’t know if this will lead to some mainstream application, but I’m sure that the researchers had lots of fun in their CAVEs-like systems.

Here is the introduction from the UB Reporter.

A virtual-reality drama by UB researchers — aimed at transforming the movie-going experience — is driving the development of increasingly “self-aware” computational agents that are able to improvise responses to the spontaneous actions of human users.

These improvisational computer agents are expected to influence the development of electronic devices of tomorrow, making them much more user-friendly because they will be able to respond to the idiosyncratic needs of each user.

Here are more explanations.

By necessity, said professor Stuart C. Shapiro, those characters are computational agents that must be capable of behaving in sophisticated and very human-like ways, attributes that also can help take “user-friendliness” for computers and other electronic devices to new heights.

“This is a step in the design and implementation of computer agents that are aware of themselves and their actions, as well as the environment they are in,” he explained, “so this work is relevant to any application in which people interact with a device or system.”

You also can see a video clip of “The Trial The Trail” project (54.7 MB, so be cautious).

And here are some of the reasons why this project is pretty unusual.

While other computer scientists are exploring multiple agent systems, he continued, this project is more demanding because the agents in the drama must be able to “perceive” themselves and then respond to the user.

So, as the human user proceeds through the drama, his or her actions are being recorded computationally over the Internet, interpreted psychologically and used to prompt the responses by the virtual characters.

Because of this, the drama is different every time, a factor that the researchers say is both a more challenging and exciting type of entertainment, while also more computationally demanding.

For more technical information, you can read this technical paper published in 2004 under the title “Psycho-Drama in VR” (PDF format, 12 pages, 220 KB). The above illustrations were extracted from this paper.

Will this research effort lead to something useful? I’ve no idea, but I’m sure I would have like to be involved in this project if my hometown was Buffalo instead of Paris.

Source: Ellen Goldbaum, The University of Buffalo Reporter, March 3, 2005, Volume 36, Number 24

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• AI
  
  
• Displays
  
  
• Movies
  
  
• Virtual Reality
  
  
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Many recent studies conclude that we don’t sleep enough during our working week. For example, the National Sleep Foundation — the other NSF — says that 40% of adults admit that the quality of their work suffers when they’re sleepy. So what should we do? Take a nap during the day. But this practice is not widely supported by companies — to say the least. If you live in Manhattan, a small company, MetroNaps, has a solution for you and is even “profiting from nonproductiveness,” according to Wired News. All you have to do is to go to a suite in the 24th floor of the Empire State Building and pay $14 for a 20-minute nap in an adjustable and ergonomic chair. For people who don’t live in Manhattan, Metronaps can rent you one of its pods for installation in your office. But you’ll have to convince your HR department that you’ll be more productive after a nap. Try to get an appointment in the morning, when you don’t need this refreshing nap. Read more…

Before going further, where will you take this nap?

Now, why do we need naps during our working days?

According to the stats on America’s need for sleep, plenty of people could use a nap. More than 50 percent of Americans are sleep-deprived, nap expert and Boston University professor Bill Anthony said, and the average American gets fewer than seven hours of sleep per night — less than the prescribed gold standard of about eight hours, Anthony said.

Sleepy employees can be bad for business, encouraging errors and injury. People who nap — be it for a few minutes or a few hours — can improve their mood and productivity, Anthony said.

But very few companies have nap rooms, and napping at work is not even considered as acceptable behavior by lots of companies. This is why Metronaps developed its concept.

Enter MetroNaps, where company creators Arshad Chowdhury and Christopher Lindholst are hoping Manhattanites looking for a midday pickup will stop by their office, kick back in one of their eight adjustable chairs and catch a light snooze, for $14 a pop.

People appear to be biting, as a new store is opening in Canada’s Vancouver International Airport in December. MetroNaps hopes to franchise its business model to other locations in the near future, and is exploring the possibility of leasing the nap pods to companies for employee use.

The company spent several years to refine the nap environment, paying particular attention to sound and light in the nap room.

And apparently, this napping concept is well received.

All different kinds of people come to nap, Lindholst said. While many of them are employees of the hundreds of businesses located within the Empire State Building, local teachers, Broadway actors and people from nearby firms also come in, as do tourists. Some building residents have sent their own employees over to MetroNaps and allowed them to expense the experience, Lindholst said.

“A lot of people who come here, they say … that they have been looking for a place like this. Sometimes they take naps in their office. For a lot of them it’s about time something like this came” along, Lindholst said.

So, now you have two reasons to go to the Empire State Building while you’re in New York.

First, take the elevator to the 86th floor and think about the 1957 movie from Leo McCarey, “An Affair to Remember,” in which Cary Grant waited in vain for Deborah Kerr. Then, take the elevator down to the 24th floor and take some rest.

Sources: Rachel Metz, Wired News, November 15, 2004; and various websites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Economy
  


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