ITR: Beyond the Talking Head and Animated Icon: Behaviorally Situated Avatars for Tutoring

行为化身辅导：超越会说话的脑袋和动画摘要一对一辅导是教和学的关键组成部分。这个项目研究了一种技术，以部署一个随时随地的导师随时随地的学生系统，允许导师通过一个动画化身提供指导。该系统利用心理语言学信息，将在LCD平板电脑上执行的基于时间的指向和交流手势与语音结合起来，转化为由化身导师执行的行为正确、位于空间上的3D手势流。摄像头跟踪学生，促进化身的社会意识行为。该系统利用学生在虚拟化身中使用身体运动线索的能力，将她的注意力引导到作为教学人工制品的投影图形的适当位置。这项技术可能会促进一个辅导项目，在这个项目中，学生可以连接到一群导师，寻求关于各种主题的帮助。该方法实质上是在互动的两端对“电话听筒”进行辅导。辅导员可以在方便的时候分布在多个地点，并在需要时接听电话。广泛获得这种辅导将有助于实现普遍可获得教育机会的愿景。该项目将调查必要的人工智能和交互技术，并评估这种辅导方法的效果。

Behaviorally Situated Avatars for Tutoring: Beyond the Talking Head and Animated IconAbstractOne-on-one tutoring is a critical component of teaching and learning. This project investigates technology to deploy an anywhere-tutor anywhere-student system that permits a tutor to provide instruction via an animated avatar. Exploiting psycholinguistic information, the system translates time-situated pointing and communicative gestures performed on a LCD tablet in conjunction with speech into a stream of behaviorally correct, spatially situated 3D gestures performed by the avatar tutor. A camera tracks the student, facilitating socially aware behavior by the avatar. The system exploits the student's ability to use body motion cues in the embodied avatar to direct her attention to appropriate locations of projected graphics that serve as artifacts of instruction. The technology will potentially facilitate a tutoring program in which students may connect to a pool of tutors for help with a variety of topics. The approach essentially implements tutoring 'telephone handsets' at both ends of the interaction. Tutors may be distributed across multiple sites at their convenience and take calls as they are needed. Widespread access to such tutoring will facilitate the vision of universally available educational opportunities. The project will investigate the necessary artificial intelligence and interaction technologies and evaluate the efficacy of this tutoring methodology.