There is a huge variety of application domains for virtual agents. They can assist in teaching and learning, they can occur at work, in health care or they can assist in sports activities. The following is a broad overview of different usage scenarios for virtual agents and how these applications have been perceived by potential users.
At a glance
- Grade: 1.0 (1.0 is the best grade)
- Examines the Mathematical Imagery Trainer for Proportionality and its virtual tutor
- Discusses ICSPACE, an immersive environment for coaching motor actions
- 8 figures
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Virtual Agents in Pedagogic Environments
2.1 Virtual Agents as Tutors
2.2 Virtual Agents as Teaching Assistants
2.3 Virtual Agents for Educational Simulation
3. Virtual Agents in Other Areas of Life
4. Discussion and Conclusion
Objectives and Themes
This work surveys applications of virtual agents and considers how potential users perceive them. It asks how virtual agents can be integrated into education and other areas of daily life, drawing on published designs and evaluations.
- Virtual tutoring and discovery-based learning
- Teaching assistants and virtual co-presenters
- Simulation for psychotherapy training
- Virtual bosses and feedback in remote work
- Motivational support for patients
- Immersive coaching for motor skills
Excerpt from the Book
Virtual Agents in Other Areas of Life
Tielman et al. (2017) focused on virtual agents that support people to change their behaviour or habits using so-called behaviour change support systems. The baseline for their investigation is the the concept of relatedness when it comes to motivating people. If a person relates to the source of external motivation, the chances that the person internalizes the motivation are higher. This means that virtual agents are potentially better in motivating a person and therefore changing the behaviour than a for example purely text-based motivational system.
The authors developed a motivational feedback system for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder patients which creates motivational statements depending on the patient’s symptom progression and the patient’s trust in the therapy’s outcome. The motivational feedback was developed in collaboration with 13 psychotherapists from six clinics who created situation-based statements. This means that no patient data was necessary to develop the system. The motivational feedback system analyses the situation and then provides feedback based on the data collected with the help of the psychotherapists.
De Kok et al. (2017) developed an immersive virtual environment called ICSPACE (Intelligent Coaching Space) in which users are guided by a coach and can learn motor actions. The coaching space is realised using a two-sided Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). The user wears passive 3D goggles and all movements are projected onto an avatar in front of the user (Figure 8).
To assess the user’s ability to perform certain movements, the researchers compare psychometric data regarding basic action concepts of the user with data from an expert and then decide which instructions are appropriate. The user’s movements are tracked by a motion tracker that captures 20 joint angles with the help of a motion capture suit. The system analyses the movement and tries to identify errors in the movement pattern. Based on the analysis, it decides which feedback to give the user.
A coach guides the user and provides verbal feedback. Based on the assessment of the users ability to perform certain movements, the coach decides to instruct the user or to demonstrate or explain the movement to be learned and guides the user until the performance is satisfactory.
Chapter Summaries
Introduction: The introduction defines virtual agents and outlines the work’s focus on education and everyday applications.
Virtual Agents in Pedagogic Environments: This chapter considers virtual tutors, classroom co-presenters and simulated patients. It describes the designs and evaluations of several systems.
Virtual Agents in Other Areas of Life: This chapter examines virtual bosses, motivational feedback for patients and an immersive movement-coaching system.
Discussion and Conclusion: The author discusses the potential and limitations of the applications, including the need for further evaluation and the practical constraints of particular systems.
Keywords
virtual agents, intelligent tutoring systems, discovery-based learning, teaching assistants, virtual co-presenters, educational simulation, virtual patients, remote work, motivational feedback, post-traumatic stress disorder, immersive coaching, motion tracking
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this work about?
It surveys virtual agents used in education and other areas of daily life and considers how users perceive these applications.
What are the main subject areas?
The work covers tutoring, classroom presentations, psychotherapy training, remote work, motivational support and movement coaching.
What is the primary objective?
The objective is to provide an overview of virtual-agent usage scenarios, with particular attention to pedagogical settings and potential users’ responses.
What research method does the author use?
The author reviews published designs, studies and evaluations; the work does not present an original experiment.
What does the main body discuss?
It describes individual agent systems, their intended users and functions, and evaluations reported by their developers or researchers.
Which keywords characterise the work?
Key terms include virtual agents, intelligent tutoring, educational simulation, motivational feedback and immersive coaching.
How are virtual agents used in psychotherapy training?
One system uses the Furhat social robot to simulate patients, allowing trainees to practise recognising and responding to verbal and non-verbal signs.
What is ICSPACE?
ICSPACE is an immersive coaching environment in which a virtual coach guides users learning motor actions using movement tracking and feedback.
- Quote paper
- Ramona Burger (Author), 2020, On the Different Application Domains of Virtual Agents, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/974344
