An Inquiry into the Cultural Context of the Design and Use of Synthetic Actors

Principal Investigator:
Sabine Payr

Senior Researcher:
Paolo Petta

Researcher:
Alexander Staller

Project Description:
In the last years, a rapid progress in the fields of computer animation and simulation could be observed, thus a growing number of realistic, believable computer generated synthetic actors in a variety of roles and tasks can be expected in the near future. While research and technical development in this field have concentrated on the development of (individual) personalities for synthetic actors, this project raised the question of the synthetic being as product and participant of different cultures. Its goal was to raise awareness of the social and cultural implications in the development and research community on the one hand and in the user community on the other. This goal was pursued through literature study and analysis of international research work and ended with an international workshop. The results have been published in the book Agent Culture: Human-Agent Interaction in a Multicultural World, edited by R. Trappl and S. Payr.

Sponsor:
Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Transport (March 2000 - December 2001)