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Preview of my presentation tomorrow at SLACTIONS 2013. Be there or be square — it's free to attend (I think) and you don't even need to move from your chair, just log in via Second Life — http://www.slactions.org/2013/
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SIMPLIFYING CROWD AUTOMATION IN THE
VIRTUAL LABORATORY OF ARCHAEOLOGY
Luís Miguel Sequeira,Leonel Caseiro Morgado, Eduardo Solteiro Pires
November 22
Virtual Archaeology
Using computer models for visualising cultural artifacts and heritage sites
Recent work also include crowd simulation (no more empty sites!) Example: Uruk in SL
Recent: Formulate hypothesis and test them on a virtual lab of archaeology
Lisbon 1755Project started informally in 2005, formally around 2007
Goal: depict the city of Lisbon that was destroyed by an earthquake on Nov 1st, 1755
Visitors will be able to attend special events and interact with inhabitants (AI-driven intelligent agents)
http://lisbon-pre-1755-earthquake.org/
Historians FTW!
Early attempts at virtual archaeology: showing off technology, historians/archaeologists only as consultants... at the end of the project
Today: Methodologies like the London Charter put the teams under supervision of a historian
Result: scientific accuracy
Virtual worlds
No need for separate modelling/rendering pipeline (when using prims)
No need to develop the engine
Historians can also formulate hypothesis and move objects around without the need to talk to the technical team!
Make it simple!
But what about crowd simulation?
Crowd simulation is not new...
Virtual worlds are not new...
Intelligent agents are not new...
... all, however, require programmers to implement simulation parameters!
How can historians do that?
Typical simulations
How did people use the spaces?
Can we recreate events in a convincing way using AI?
Can we see emergent behaviour (peasants avoiding to bump into nobles, or seeking priests for a blessing?)
Agents interacting with human visitors
The concept (1)
Classical model with perception/selection/behaviour modules
Movement is towards attractors/getting away from repellers (e.g. other agents) — typical from swarms
Agents pick up their own rules for better achieving their goals using genetic algorithms (GA)
The concept (2)
For the GA, the fitness function depends on the length of the longest, unimpeded line of sight (as calculated by the ray-casting functions in LSL) and the nearness of the current goal
All parts of the simulation engine use “standard” algorithms; further research could explore alternatives
What’s new?
It’s cruel to expect historians to learn about programming AIs...
Instead, we borrow ideas from games: agents have goals which are represented by cubes on the terrain
So to “programme” a goal, a historian just drops a cube on the ground. Simple!
Defining goalsEnergy level: Moving around reduces energy; goal is to find inn to eat/home to sleep
Money level: Agents earn a daily wage (motivation to go to job area); working reduces energy level
Happiness level: Working is boring, so agents will look for entertainment areas
Interaction moduleNPC belong to a ‘class‘ — e.g. nobleman, priest, peasant, merchant, foreigner, beggar...
Matrix of interaction between each class (peasant bows before nobleman)
Very simple: friend/foe/neutral but this may be changed later
Friend/foe act as potential attractors/repellers too
Summarising...
To set goals, historians place cubes around the location, and adjust them in real-time
To define NPC/NPC interactions, historians assign NPC to classes on a web page (no programming)
Status & LimitationsPrototype is not yet functional
Suitable only for small crowds (too many cubes otherwise!)
Difficulties making it work across SL and OpenSim (original requirement)
User validation was not performed yet
Overall concept fits requirements as per interviews, but might not be suitable
Future workCubes attracting just one NPC (which sits on it)
Combine cubes (sitting on one activates another)
Interaction matrix: per NPC and dynamically adjusted
Autonomously-moving cubes?
Games? Other platforms?