Enriching Discrete Actions with Impactful Emotions

Believable interactions between synthetic characters are an important factor defining the success of a virtual environment relying on human participants being able to create emotional bonds with artificial characters. Not only is it important for characters to be believable, but also interactions with or between such characters too. Previously we created 3Motion, a model for synthetic character interaction based on anticipation and emotion that allows for precise affective communication of intention-based behaviors, which improves the believability of both synthetic characters and their actions. Currently the model has been evaluated using a low fidelity text-based prototype and shown to create believable interactions. We want to improve the model by adapting it to 3D real-time virtual environment, specifically using an online learning environment virtual coaching platform, and evaluate it in a real world scenario. Measuring believability, but also trying to assess the impact on the user learning experience.