The School of Computing of the University of Teesside is a member in CALLAS. The School conducts research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques for Virtual Reality, with a specific emphasis on virtual characters, including conversational characters.
The School of Computing of the University of Teesside has been active in the field of Interactive Narrative since 2000 and is now recognised internationally for its research and the specific approach it has developed, “character-based interactive storytelling†, with over 30 international publications on the subject in the past years.
The School of Computing of the University of Teesside has been active in the field of Interactive Narrative since 2000 and is now recognised internationally for its research and the specific approach it has developed, “character-based interactive storytelling†, with over 30 international publications on the subject in the past years.
This research was awarded the “best paper prize†at the First International Conference on Virtual Storytelling (2001) and again at the Second International Conference on Virtual Storytelling (2003). Examples from Teesside’s research have been used to illustrate courses in computer animation and multimedia in several universities worldwide, in the USA, Germany, Finland, etc.
This research and its potential applications have been featured in the national and international press, among which the Daily Telegraph, The Times “T2â€, Le Monde (France), Corriere della Sera (Italy).
Teesside has been active in several research areas relevant to the CALLAS project, either in terms of techniques or application areas:
- Interactive TV: Teesside has been working previously in Interactive TV, in collaboration with the BBC and other partners, having been the co-ordinating partner for the DTI/EPSRC LINK Broadcast BT-111 “Virtual Interactive Presenter†project (Multimodal Conversational interface to the Electronic Programme Guide). Conversational Characters: In addition to the above project, Teesside has conducted research in dialogue generation for virtual characters and multimodal interaction with virtual actors in interactive storytelling applications . Previous research has been dedicated to Multimodal Interaction in Mixed-Reality Interactive Storytelling.
- Digital Arts: Teesside has also been the co-ordinator of ALTERNE Project (IST-2001-38575, ended July 2005), dedicated to the development of a new AI-based technology for Virtual Reality Art .