Virtual-Reality Movies Put a New Face on "User-Friendly" - University at Buffalo

A virtual-reality drama by University at Buffalo researchers -- aimed at transforming the movie-going experience -- is driving the development of increasingly "self-aware" computational agents that are able to improvise responses to the spontaneous actions of human users. These improvisational computer agents are expected to influence the development of electronic devices of tomorrow, making them much more user-friendly because they will be able to respond to the idiosyncratic needs of each user. The researchers' virtual-reality drama, The Trial The Trail, is a brand new type of dramatic entertainment, where instead of identifying with the protagonist, the audience becomes the protagonist. The multidisciplinary team formed two years ago when Josephine Anstey, assistant professor in the Department of Media Study in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, was looking for ways to make VR dramas more believable. At the same time, Stuart C. Shapiro, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, was seeking applications to challenge the computerized cognitive agent called CASSIE that he and his colleagues had developed.