Holographic humans

Abstract

Over the last few years, holographic technology has been made readily available. This modern technology may have various applications ranging from medical, cultural, educational and communication industries. Focusing on the three latter industries, the main aim of this final year project is to create virtual agents to behave in a believable manner and display them within a three dimensional model of local megalithic temple ’Hagar Qim’ in a museum context. These holographic humans are not only visually appealing with clear animations but must also behave in a psychologically sound and autonomous manner. Believability is a cornerstone within Artificial Intelligence and consequently, in order to achieve such a high degree of autonomy and believability, the holographic humans developed in this work are self-determined with their own reactive plan of actions to organise their daily routines. In order to produce such believable behaviour, computational motivation models based on psychological theories are explored. Furthermore, visitors are able to interact with the holographic humans in order to get a clearer picture of life in prehistoric times and witness the diverse personalities and interests of the humans. Finally, the system was tested empirically by a number of people and questionnaires were filled in order to test the subjective concept of believability of the system as a whole. Highly positive feedback was generated with a 96% believability rate and an 80% agreement that this platform would be suitable in a museum context. The designed system manifested believable daily routines which visitors were able to relate to as the humans planned their activities just like any ordinary person would – having time to be productive and make the most of a day whilst also adhering to biological needs such as thirst and hunger as well as sleeping when dusk falls upon the virtual environment. Therefore, artificially intelligent holographic humans were created to serve as an interactive educational platform.