Sample Portfolio 2

Several more prototypes can be constructed and evaluated around the virtual guide agent with minimal effort. However, I think its time to present some architectural designs on which the system was based upon:

Architecture-related software: The architectures below are made mainly using MindJet Mindmanager.  

Hub-and-Spokes like Dialogues:

Prototype 1 features a Finite State Machine (FSM) dialogue manager capable of dynamically displaying questions based on the user’s selection and the current context. The questions cover a very broad range of the possible questions/clarifications that a user can ask after a presentation for a location. This FSM was used in most systems except prototype 4 where the user could ask questions using natural dialogue. The flow diagram below gives an idea of how dialogue is brunched within the system.

Please note that only the branching for questions 1 and 4 is shown in the diagram below. In addition, although not shown the final hubs all terminate in the “Dialogue Terminate” state. 

Short explanation:

The user listens to an introductory script from the guide agent and then, they can either select to listen to the presentation about a location or have a look around. Once the presentation is complete, a hub with questions is loaded from where the user can select what to ask . After hearing the guide’s answer, the user can either return to the main hub (i.e., by selecting “I want to ask something else”), from which they can ask another question, or enters a deeper hub with more options to choose from. The user can either exhaust all questions available to them and proceed to the next location, in which case the dialogue enters the “Dialogue Terminate State” or simply tap the button next on the interface of the system to proceed.

System Architecture:

 

This is one of my first attempts to design Talos – an authoring toolkit for Virtual guide development and research. The architecture is far from complete, but it serves as an excellent basis for designing the final architecture of the toolkit. Unfortunately, I can not provide any explanation on the toolkit or its modules, as I have to publish a paper on it. However, the main idea of Talos is to provide a cheap solution for researchers wishing to create virtual guide prototypes, as well as, for content writers (e.g., guide book writers) wishing their content to be presented through a truly multi-modal medium.

 

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Software Structure:

1) This is my first attempt to implement a simple UI to fully/partially automate the development of Virtual humans. This prototype has many interesting features, that implemented during my M.Phil years (2003-2006), like for instance a Cyc query builder aimed to automate the transformation of questions into a format suitable to be inserted into CyN AIML scripts.

2) A system structure of a system I built during the M.Phil years (2003-2006)

 

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