Thesis

When interacting with robots or synthetic characters, humans create expectations similar to those when interacting with other humans. A robot that can meet such expectations provides a more believable and enjoyable interaction. Gaze Behavior is a non verbal communicative way, having a preponderant role in human interactions. It is related with the eyes, the way we look and the surrounding area of the eyes, having several functions on the human-robot interaction (HRI). This thesis proposes a solution based on a Gaze Behavior model, to understand if we can increase the believability and likeability of the HRI. To measure enjoyability and familiarity of the HRI, we perform an experience with 5 colored lettered cubes, a robot and 12 participants. Each participant interact with the three models and in the end had to fill one questionnaire. After the 12 experiments, the results of the questionnaire were compiled and analyzed through a method called ?Wilcoxon? test. The main conclusions regarding the obtained results point to an easier comprehension/interaction with the robot when our model is used. Additionally, results point to a more enjoyable interaction when movement of the eyes is performed, whether our model is used or the ?Random Gaze? is used.

Sidekicks generally lack the support to understand a fundamental character in their world -- the player's avatar. This has a negative impact on their behavioural believability. In this work, we present an approach to detect the intent underlying certain actions of the player. We begin by introducing synthetic characters and sidekicks in particular, emphasising on their believability. We then review related works which enhance the believability of characters by anticipating the actions of other characters. To understand the reason underlying their actions, we model the relation between intention and action and then proceed on elaborating a framework that can interpret the intent of an action based on an anticipatory mechanism. We then present a test-case in which our framework is used to create an architecture controlling the sidekick of the player. Finally, we discuss three aspects of our evaluation: the player's intent recognition, its interpretation and the solution's efficiency. Our results suggest that our solution can be used to detect certain intents and, in such cases, perform similarly to a human observer, with no impact on computational performance.

In this dissertation, we present a framework that was inspired in the motion picture workflow with the objective of achieving illumination based representation of scene tension values. This framework was also developed with the goal of being applicable to most virtual storytelling worlds including multiplayer games. A system was created to implement the framework. The system has two intelligent agents that cooperate to read scene tension values and manipulate the lighting to express those values. The system was case studied by applying it to project FearNot! (a Virtual Learning Environment inhabited by autonomous agents) and was consequently evaluated with positive results. It was evaluated if the illumination variation was understood by observers as tension variation and if observers understood the story better with the use of our system.

Board Games have been around us for years. And although our technology has evolved and brought to us new forms of entertainment, we still play board games. If we still play them it is possibly because they are enjoyable and make us feel good. But these games have also evolved and became more complex. One of these new games is World of Warcraft ? The Board Game. Our objective is to develop the computer version of this game to reduce the game complexity, remove physical limitations and reduce the time spent. And at the same time, manage to maintain or improve the games rules, mechanisms and fun factor. The result of this work was a functional version of the World of Warcraft ? The Board Game for PC. In this version it is possible to change the game environment, through the modification of configuration files for cards, board, etc. It is also possible to change some game rules, like the number of turns, number of player actions, etc.