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Content archived on 2024-05-24

Virtual ICT with Empathic Characters

Objective

VICTEC addresses the emotional and empathic aspects of the learning process, in particular focusing on Personal and Social Education (PSE). It applies a new technology embodied in a synthetic characters toolkit, suppporting the creation of believable synthetic characters in a virtual environment that establish credible and empathic relations with child users, thus creating a feeling of 'social presence'. To achieve this, VICTEC investigates interactive drama in virtual environments, using autonomous agents as actors and involving child users through an avatar. This involvement will be carried out both through simple interfaces and through intelligent hardware - personal tokens or toys. VICTEC will produce a demonstrator in the area of bullying and aggressive behaviour, supporting the pedagogical process by allowing children to investigate alternative choices and actions in a 'safe' environment and by creating empathy with the virtual actors.

OBJECTIVES
1. To apply social agent, improvisational drama and virtual environment technology to Personal and Social Education in the form of a demonstrator on the issue of bullying and aggression;
2. To develop a theory of emergent narrative from which computational requirements can be derived;
3. To establish a theory of social agent personality and autobiographical memory;
4. To produce a toolkit consistent with both agent and graphical standards;
5. To incorporate physical devices (intelligent toys) supplied with sensors as user interface devices;
6. To evaluate the pedagogical, social and emotional impact of the technology;
7. To disseminate our results and tools throughout European schools and Community.

DESCRIPTION OF WORK
VICTEC addresses key action III.2.2 by targeting the emotional and empathic aspects of the learning process, in particular focusing on Personal and Social Education (PSE). It applies a new technology embodied in a synthetic characters toolkit supporting the creation of believable synthetic characters in a virtual environment. This establishes credible and empathic relations with child users, thus creating a feeling of 'social presence' and that the actions of the actors 'really matter'. The virtual actors will be used for improvised dramatic exploration of social issues. Thus VICTEC investigates improvisational interactive drama in virtual environments using autonomous agents as actors and involving child users through an avatar. This involvement will be carried out both through simple interfaces and through intelligent hardware - personal tokens or toys. Alongside the development of the generic toolkit, VICTEC will produce a demonstrator in the area of bullying and aggressive behaviour in the 8-12 age groups, supporting the pedagogical process by allowing children to investigate alternative choices and actions in a 'safe' environment and by creating empathy with the virtual actors. In collaboration with partner schools, this demonstrator will be evaluated for pedagogical outcomes as well as for emotional and social impact on its child users.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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Coordinator

THE UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD
EU contribution
No data
Address
43, THE CRESCENT
M5 4WT SALFORD
United Kingdom

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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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Participants (4)

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