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An approach to human performance modeling for semi-autonomous agents in virtual environments

Dr. Yiannis Papelis
Monday, February 12, 2007
2:00PM ~ 3:00PM, Harris Center-125

Abstract


Modeling realistic human-like autonomous agents in immersive virtual environments requires capturing the stochastic nature of human behavior. Deterministic behavior that shows no variation or unpredictability is unnatural and typically attributed to artificial entities, hence the term robot-like. At the same time, it is often the case that the motives for using immersive virtual environments, such as in research and training, require and often depend on repeatability and determinism of interactions between the human participant and the autonomous agents. The talk will overview work in semi-autonomous agent modeling that attempts to address the contradictory aspects of randomized yet deterministic behavior in immersive virtual environments. The talk will also discuss the use of hidden markov models (HMMs) for two purposes. First, as modeling tools HMMs can be trained by real data and very effectively capture the stochastic nature of human behavior. Second, as performance evaluators, HMMs can recognize patterns of actions which in turn can be used to assess performance against exemplars of behavior. The talk will probe the relation between the stochastic nature of autonomous behavior and performance assessment of human behavior in virtual and live environments.

Short Bio


Yiannis Papelis has a B.S. degree from Southern Illinois University, a M.S from Purdue University and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, all in Electrical & Computer engineering. Before joining UCF as a visiting Assistant Professor, he held positions as R&D project leader and research scientist at the University of Iowa. His prior work focused on immersive virtual environments and driving simulation in particular. He has been the principal or co-principal investigator for over 35 applied research projects spanning work in immersive driving simulation, vehicle safety system evaluation and driver performance. Highlights of this activity include training systems that are currently used to train thousands of Swiss soldiers every year, simulators used to research effects of drugs and in-vehicle device distraction on drivers, research simulators used to design advanced agricultural equipment, and findings that have been used by the department of transportation to support a new law that if instituted, is anticipated to reduce traffic accidents and save up to 10,000 lives each year.

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