FreeWalk: a social interaction platform for group behaviour in a virtual space |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Bioinformatics Research Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA;2. Department of Biological Sciences, Center for Human Health and the Environment, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA;3. Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA;1. Unit of Physiology,Department of Health Sciences, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain;2. Institute of Neurosciences, “Federico Olóriz” University of Granada, Granada, Spain;3. Cardiovascular and Metabolic Syndrome Adviser, Rue es Planches 5, 2842 Rossemaison, Switzerland;4. Department of Biostatistic, Medical School, University of Granada, Granada, Spain;1. School of Information Science and Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China;2. School of Computer and Information Engineering, Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen 361024, China |
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| Abstract: | FreeWalk is a social interaction platform where people and agents can socially and spatially interact with one another. FreeWalk has evolved to support heterogeneous interaction styles including meetings, cross-cultural encounters, and evacuation drills. Each of them is usually supported by an individual virtual environment. This evolution extended the capability to control social interaction. The first prototype only provides people with an environment in which they can gather to talk with one another while the third prototype provides them with a whole situation to behave according to their assigned roles and tasks. FreeWalk1 is a spatial videoconferencing system. In this system, the positions of participants make spontaneous simultaneous conversations possible. Spatial movements are integrated with video-mediated communication. FreeWalk1 is able to make social interaction more casual and relaxed than telephone-like telecommunication media. In contrast to conventional videoconferencing systems, people formed concurrent multiple groups to greet and chat with others. In FreeWalk2, a social agent acts as an in-between of people to reduce the problem of the low social context in virtual spaces. When the agent notes an awkward pause in a conversation, it approaches those involved in the conversation with a suggestion for a new topic to talk about. We used this agent to support cross-cultural communication between Japan and US. Our agent strongly influenced people's impressions of their partners, and also, their stereotypes about their partner's nationality. FreeWalk3 is a virtual city simulator to conduct virtual evacuation drills. This system brings social interaction into crisis management simulation. People can join a virtual scene of a disaster at home. Social agents can also join to play their roles assigned by simulation designers. The system architecture has a split control interface to divide control of multiple agents into high-level instruction for them and simulation of their low-level actions. The interface helps simulation designers to control many agents efficiently. |
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