Virtual Interaction: Interaction in Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds, 2001

Lars Qvortrup The world of interactive 3D multimedia is a cross-institutional world. Here, researchers from media studies, linguistics, dramaturgy, media technology, 3D modelling, robotics, computer science, sociology etc. etc. meet. In order not to create a new tower of Babel, it is important to develop a set of common concepts and references. This is the aim of the first section of the book. In Chapter 2, Jens F. Jensen identifies the roots of interaction and interactivity in media studies, literature studies and computer science, and presents definitions of interaction as something going on among agents and agents and objects, and of interactivity as a property of media supporting interaction. Similarly, he makes a classification of human users, avatars, autonomous agents and objects, demon­ strating that no universal differences can be made. We are dealing with a continuum. While Jensen approaches these categories from a semiotic point of view, in Chapter 3 Peer Mylov discusses similar isues from a psychological point of view. Seen from the user's perspective, a basic difference is that between stage and back-stage (or rather: front-stage), i. e. between the real "I" and "we" and the virtual, representational "I" and "we". Focusing on the computer as a stage, in Chapter 4 Kj0lner and Lehmann use the theatre metaphor to conceptualize the stage phenomena and the relationship between stage and front-stage.

1 Introduction — Welcome into the Interface.- 1 Avatars and Agents in Computerized Theatre.- 2 Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds: Interactivity and Interaction Between Avatars, Autonomous Agents and Users.- 3 Three Types of Multimedia Interactions — and Beyond.- 4 Uses of Theatre as Model: Discussing Computers as Theatre — Some Additional Perspectives.- 2 Construction of Interactive Lifelike Agents and Actors.- 5 Agents: Dependent Autonomy and Transparent Automatons?.- 6 Enhancing the Usefulness of Community Chat Rooms: Application of Autonomous Agents.- 7 Agents as Actors.- 8 Games and Stories.- 9 Aspects of Interactive Autonomy and Perception.- 10 Discussion.- 3 Verbal and Non-Verbal Interaction with Virtual Worlds and Agents.- 11 Interacting with a Virtual World Through Motion Capture.- 12 Linguistic Interaction in Staging — a Language Engineering View.- 13 Exploiting Recent Research on Dialogue to Model Verbal Communication in Staging.- 4 Interactive Narratives.- 14 Narratives: Different Narratives, Different Theories for Different Media?.- 15 The Limits of Narration.- 16 Film Theory Meets 3D: a Film Theoretic Approach to the Design and Analysis of 3D Spaces.- 17 Shaping Meaning: On Action and Content in Unreal Worlds.- 18 Constructing the Concept of the “Interactive 3D Documentary” — Film, Drama, Narrative or Simulation?.- 19 Temporal Logic as a Tool for the Description of the Narrativity of Interactive Multimedia Systems.- 5 Methods for Designing Interactive Inhabited Virtual Worlds.- 20 Experimental Design of an Interactive Installation.- 21 Using Software Engineering Approaches to Model Dynamics in Interactive Software Systems.- 22 Managing Narrative Multimedia Production.- Author Index.