Page 219 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

202 Socially Intelligent Agents

hero/heroine, villain, donor, magician, loved one and family. In Teatrix,roles
define and establish the function of the agent (character) in the narrative, by
means of the specification of particular actions and goals for that agent (e.g.,
a villain character has as one of its goals harming the hero). With these well
defined sets of roles and actors, we aimed at providing the children with a set
of varied characters who are interesting, identifiable and fun and at the same
time that have the means to develop and grow throughout the story creation
process [8].
Furthermore, the characters were developed in such a way that they can act
autonomously in the story, if not controlled by a child. This is simplified by
the fact that the system must try to guarantee that the character follows the role
that was assigned to it. This means that a role has associated a set of goals that
the system will try to achieve (see [6] and [5] for a more detailed description
of the agent’s architecture).
To control the characters Teatrix provides the children with a set of actions
which they can select at acting time (see Figure 24.3). These actions are as-
sociated not only with the character performing it but also with the props that
the character owns at each instant (see Figure 24.3). In our research, we have
embedded inside the objects the necessary knowledge of what effect they will
have in the environment.

Figure 24.3. Actions for controlling the characters

This defined set of actions provides the children with motion control (for
example: each child can move her character along the scene by using the move
action) and a type of behaviour control, achieved through assignment of a role
to the characters and with the use of the props.

5. Communication and Reflection in Teatrix

Taking into account the types of interactions observed in the dramatic games
of the school, we tried to provide some mechanisms for communication em-
bedded in Teatrix. Basically, children can communicate through their charac-
ters in two ways: 1) by using their objects on another character (for example
one child may use her character’s stick on another character to harm it); or 2)
by speaking to another character using the “talk” action.
These two ways of communication were broadly used by children in the
version installed in the NIMIS classroom of the school “O Nosso Sonho”.