One of the latest episodes from the TV series Black Mirror features technology that could have stemmed from University of Malta research. The link was featured in the leading newspaper The Guardian.
In the second episode called Playtest, a tourist is lured into a game development studio to try out their latest AR (augmented reality) horror game. The game scans the person’s personality and turns them into reality for the player. The poor tourist ends up losing their mind.
It might seem like science fiction that a game can analyse a player’s playing style or personality and then adjusts the game to the player. However, game researchers and designers have been doing this since 2004 when AI researchers Prof. Georgios Yannakakis and Prof. John Hallam published their paper based on the classic video game Pacman.
The researchers used a neural network to learn the behaviour of the player to then adjust how the game works towards that player’s strategy, which is called ‘player modelling’. The game could continuously change how it attacks the player to keep them more interested. The game was scanning the player just like in the TV series Black Mirror, but for a more benign reason.
Yannakakis, now at the University of Malta’s Institute of Digital Games (game.edu.mt), leads a team focused on a whole sleuth of computer game research topics from artificial intelligence to computers that can invent games and model players.
The Guardian commented: Not only have they used behavioural data gathered during play, they’ve also used age, gender and other player details to inform their systems. Their aim isn’t just to make interesting games, however – the AI techniques they’re exploring may well be used in educational software or as diagnostic or treatment tools in mental health care.
Yannakakis’s team and collaborators from all around Europe have just completed a game that enhances children’s creativity. Called Iconoscope players draw designs around given concepts. The aim is that half of the class should guess the concept from the design while the other half is misled.
The game uses artificial intelligence first developed in the Pacman game to push players to be more creative through unique suggestions. The researchers want to bring Iconoscope to schools and festivals around Europe.
So what’s next for this exciting team? Hopefully not a horror game.
The Guardian article can be read online.
Video of iconoscope available at the following link.