Creating Real-Time Embodied Autonomous Agents

A challenging research area for computer graphics and virtual environments (VE) is training interpersonal interactions. In such a system, at least one person is the VE participant, while several more virtual human agents (represented by human-like, embodied models) are engaged in activities in the same virtual space. The participants, whether live or virtual, should interact as if all were real. This means that the virtual agents must have several characteristics afforded to real people, including the following: