Empathic interaction with synthetic characters enables users to build and maintain an emotional involvement that can result in stimulating novel interactions. Many factors impact on empathic interaction; here we focus on the role of ‘similarity’ in developing empathic relations. Evidence suggests that if a character is perceived as being similar to the user in appearance and behaviour, then gre...

This paper presents seven experiments to determine the optimal size of a box for the input of handwriting characters on PDAs. The experiments involve consideration of boxes for different kinds of characters, different sizes and shapes (square and rectangular), the learning effect, and the age differences of users. The results are assessed in terms of high performance factors (e.g., high charact...

This thesis will explore the morally ambiguous nature of violence when used as a response to racial oppression and misogyny in three contemporary American novels: Corregidora (1975) and Eva’s Man (1976) by Gayl Jones, and The Bluest Eye (1970) by Toni Morrison. All three of these novels feature female characters whose acts of violence may be interpreted as responses to racism and sexism. Violen...

In this paper, we introduce the concept of Visual Storytelling Warehouse, an interactive XML-based automatic cartoonstyle visual storytelling system to generate new stories based on written story structures and user’s requirements. The Warehouse will consist of the visual and no-visual elements including characters, events, background images, and story plots. Each of these elements will be asso...

—In this paper, we focus on the different aspects of real time visualization and animation of realistic virtual characters. The common goal for our research was to come up with solutions based on the concepts of the ISO standard X3D and if necessary propose generalized extensions to the standard. First we describe a high level control language and its implementation suitable for non-graphics ex...

The idea that an author's heritage and environment can be reflected in the plotline of his/her narratives and in the development of each character is thought-provoking; while it is true that an author's voice may not be the same as the narrator's voice, the work is still influenced by the author and his/her perception of the characters, their world, and their journey. The characters expand from...

This paper reports on interdisciplinary findings and first results of the ongoing EU-funded R&D project “art-E-fact”. Within the project, a generic platform for building a particular genre of Mixed Reality interactive storytelling experiences is under development. It enables artists to script interactive dialogues for multiple virtual characters and a human participant, as well as to freely des...

The creation of fictional stories is a very complex task that usually implies a creative process where the author has to combine characters, conflicts and plots to create an engaging narrative. This work presents a simulated environment with hundreds of characters that allows the study of coherent and interesting literary archetypes (or behaviours), plots and sub-plots. We will use this environ...

During the last decade research groups as well as a number of commercial software developers have started to deploy embodied conversational characters in the user interface especially in those application areas where a close emulation of multimodal human-human communication is needed. Most of these characters have one thing in common: In order to enter the user’s physical world, they need to be...

In this paper we will discuss different types of control over synthetic characters in interactive stories. We will argue that, to attain a deeper and more engaging control, in certain conditions, users should be able to inspect, disclose, and modify the characters minds. To illustrate this idea, we will present a collaborative virtual environment called Teatrix, designed for children to build t...