VirtualHuman

Abstract

Natural multimodal interaction with realistic virtual characters provides rich opportunities for entertainment and education. In this paper we present the current VIRTUALHUMAN demonstrator system. It provides a knowledge-based framework to create interactive applications in a multi-user, multi-agent setting. The behavior of the virtual humans and objects in the 3D environment is controlled by interacting affective conversational dialogue engines. An elaborate model of affective behavior adds natural emotional reactions and presence of the virtual humans. Actions are defined in a XML-based markup language that supports the incremental specification of synchronized multimodal output. The system was successfully demonstrated during CeBIT 2006.