Being on Guard: Intelligent Virtual Agents Reporting Information from Collaborative Virtual Environments

Abstract

An important property of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) and multiintelligent virtual agents systems (mIVAS) is their capability to acquire/perceive information from their environment. In this paper we present an auditory perceptual model for IVAs and mIVAS, which extends and reinterprets the key concepts of one of the awareness models developed for computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) applications, the spatial model of interaction (SMI). This perceptual model also introduces some factors typical of human perception-such as auditory acuity-as well as others associated with the sound source and its propagation with the aim of making perception in this kind of system more humanlike.