Virtual Storytelling. Using Virtual Reality Technologies for Storytelling: International Conference ICVS 2001 Avignon, France, September 27-28, 2001 ... (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2197)

The story is the richest heritage of human civilizations. One can imagine the ?rst stories being told, several thousand centuries ago, by wise old men huddled around camp?res. Since this time, the narrative process has been considerably developed and enriched: sounds and music have been added to complement the speech, while scenery and theatrical sets have been created to enhance the story environment. Actors, dancers, and technicians have replaced the lone storyteller. The story is no longer the sole preserve of oral narrative but can be realized in book, theatrical, dance, or movie form. Even the audience can extend up to several million individuals. And yet in its many forms the story lies at the heart of one of the world’s most important industries. The advent of the digital era has enhanced and accelerated this evolution: image synthesis, digital special e?ects, new Human-Computer interfaces, and the Internet allow one not only to realize more sophisticated narrative forms but also to create new concepts such as video gaming and virtual environments. The art of storytelling is becoming evermore complex. Virtual reality o?ers new tools to capture, and to interactively modify the imaginary environment, in ever more intuitive ways, coupled with a maximum sensory feedback. In fact, virtual reality technologies o?er enhanced and exciting production possibilities for the creation and non-linear manipulation in real time, of almost any story form. This has lead to the new concept of Virtual Storytelling. Virtual Storytelling Preface Acknowledgements Organization Table of Contents Under Construction in Europe: Virtual and Mixed Reality for a Rich Media Experience 1 The European IST Programme 2 The Action Line ‚Mixed Realities & New Imaging FrontiersTM 2.1 Objectives and Scope 2.2 Running Projects 2.3 Coverage 2.4 Strategic Impact 3 Perspectives Œ From Information to Experience? Acknowledgements. The author wishes to thank Ramesh Jain of UCSD's Visual Computing Laboratory for an inspiring talk, as well as all the experts who have contributed to the recent FP6 consultation meetings held in Brussels in Spring 2001. Disclaimer. The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. References Generation of True 3D Films 1 What Is a True 3D Film? 2 Related Work 2.1 Creation of Photo-Realistic 3D Models of Real Humans 2.2 Realistic Animation of Human Models 2.3 3D Capture of Human Motion and Shape 3 Principle 4 Dynamic 3D Data Capture 5 Results and Applications 5.1 True 3D Film 5.2 Applications for Virtual Storytelling 6 Conclusion and Future Work References Spatial Sound Enhancing Virtual Story Telling 1 Introduction 1.1 Description of the Model 1.2 The Need for Sound 2 Sound in Virtual Displays 2.1 Sound in VRML 2.2 MPEG-4 Sound 3 Implementation 3.1 Spatialisateur 4 Evaluation 5 Conclusions and Further Work References The VISIONS Project 1 Introduction 2 Architecture 3 Virtual Actors 3.1 Virtual Actor Casting 3.2 Virtual Actor Direction 4 The 3D Living Model Collection 4 Conclusion and Future Work References Programming Agent with Purposes: Application to Autonomous Shooting in Virtual Environment 1 Introduction 2 Programming Agents' Behaviour 3 Programming with Purposes 4 Autonomous Shooting 5 Perspectives References Interactive Immersive Transfiction 1 Introduction 2 Conceptual Exploration 3 Technical Architecture 4 Narrative Graphs 5 Conclusion References Interactive Storytelling: People, Stories, and Games 1 Introduction 2 Stories 2.1 The Story Contract 3 Home Acting 4 Stories, Games, Puzzles, and Toys 4.1 Communicating 4.2 Actions 4.3 Rules 5 Conclusion An Authoring Tool for Intelligent Educational Games 1 Introduction 2 The RENAISSANCE Project 3 The Game Architecture 3.1 The Evaluation Engine 3.2 Example of a Situation 4 The Evaluation Engine Authoring Environment 5 Conclusions References Generation and Implementation of Mixed-Reality, Narrative Performances Involving Robotic Actors 1 Introduction 2 The Directing Process 2.1 Specification of Actor-Driven Associations 2.2 Specification of Media-Driven Associations 2.3 Qualitative Analysis of Media-Driven Segments 3 The Execution Process 3.1 Actor Tracking & Guidance 3.2 Behavior Adjustment 4 Implementation 5 Conclusions, Related and Future Work Acknowledgements. This work was supported by the Greek Secretariat for Research and Technology under the program «Hygeiorobot» (GSRT-PENED 99). References Film and the Development of Interactive Narrative 1 Introduction 2 Narration in Film 3 Narrative and Narration in Interactive Entertainment 4 The Continuity of Time, Space, and Action 5 fiShowingfl and fiTellingfl 6 The fiBirthfl of Immersion 7 Conclusions References Virtual Storytelling as Narrative Potential: Towards an Ecology of Narrative 1 Introduction 2 The Nature of Narrative 3 Work and Meaning 4 The Aesthetics of VEs 5 Perceptual Modeling 6 The Perceptual Opportunities of Shenmue 7 POs, Narrative Potential, and Virtual Storytelling 8 Conclusions References Adaptive Narrative: How Autonomous Agents, Hollywood, and Multiprocessing Operating Systems Can Live Happily Ever After 1 Introduction 2 Motivation 3 An Adaptive Narrative Architecture 3.1 Choosing Background Processes 4 Dramatic Functions 4.1 A Functional Approach 4.2 Dramatic Function Notation 4.3 Reversal Function 4.4 Snare Function 5 Concrete Examples 6 Future Work References Learning in Character: Building Autonomous Animated Characters That Learn What They Ought to Learn 1 Introduction 2 Why Characters Need to Learn: Learning and the Intentional Stance 2.1 Desires 2.2 Beliefs 2.3 Actions 2.4 Putting It All Together 3 Lessons 3.1 Lessons from Digital Pets 3.2 Lessons from Machine Learning 3.3 Lessons from Nature 3.4 Learning 3.5 Training 4 Our Approach 5 Our Experience So Far 5.1 (Void *): A Cast of Characters 5.2 Duncan 5.3 Goatzilla 5.4 wolf 6 Conclusion References Real Characters in Virtual Stories 1 Introduction 2 {it SAGA}: Support and Guidance Architecture 2.1 Concepts 2.2 Integration 2.3 Components 3 Application of {it SAGA} 4 Preliminary Results 5 Conclusions and Future Steps References Real-Time Character Animation Using Multi-layered Scripts and Spacetime Optimization 1 Introduction 2 System Overview 3 Script Language 4 Low-Level Motion Generation 4.1 Data Blending 4.2 Optimization 5 Results 6 Conclusion and Future Work References Characters in Search of an Author: AI-Based Virtual Storytelling 1 Introduction 2 Characters-Driven Storytelling and Narrative Formalisms 3 AI Planning for CharactersTM Behaviour 4 Dynamic Story Generation: First Results 5 Conclusion References Virtual Agents' Self-Perception in Story Telling 1 Introduction 2 FCMs and Agent's Behaviour 2.1 FCMs Definition 2.2 FCMs Relations with Agent's Behaviour 3 Perception and Self-Perception 3.1 Virtual Characters' Perception 3.2 Self-Perception 4 Perspectives References Reflections from a Hobby Horse DocToon© - A Mediator in the Hospital of the XXIst Century 1 Introduction 2 Technology 3 Virtual Storytelling at Hospital 3.1 Restoring a Smile Is Already a Step towards Recovery 3.2 Ethics and Privacy 4 Experiment 1 4.1 Aim, Methods, and Observations 4.2 Hypotheses about the Mechanisms That Might Explain the Virtual Character’s Efficacy and More Specifically the Advantages That We Observed 4.2.1 First Hypothesis 4.2.2 Second Hypothesis 4.2.3 Third Hypothesis 4.2.4 Fourth Hypothesis 4.3 Approach for Specific Situations 4.4 Further Research and Investigation 5 Summary and Conclusions 5.1 Who Are You ? 5.2 Real and Imaginary 5.3 He’s a Friend ... The Interplay between Form, Story, and History: The Use of Narrative in Cultural and Educational Virtual Reality 1 Introduction 2 Interactivity and Narrative in Virtual Reality 3 Virtual Storytelling in the Formation of Cultural Experiences 4 Avatars and Intelligent Agents as Educational Aids or Storytelling Characters 5 Concluding Remarks References Virtual Storytelling of Cooperative Activities in a Theatre of Work 1 Introduction 2 DocuDrama Œ Telling a Story of Past Cooperative Activities 2.1 Related Work 3 DocuDrama in TOWER 3.1 Events as Sources for the Storyboard 3.2 Replay Scenarios 3.3 Storyline Generation 4 Summary and Future Work Acknowledgements. We thank the members of the TOWER project team who provided helpful ideas and support during preparation of this document. The TOWER project is partly funded through the IST program IST-10846. References Virtual Storytelling for Training: An Application to Fire Fighting in Industrial Environment 1 Introduction 2 Agents 3 Procedure Description and Collaboration 4 Application 5 Conclusion References Computer Animation and Virtual Reality for Live Art Performance 1 Introduction 2 Theatrical Creation and Reality Virtual Technologies 3 Character Motion 4 Future Developments Virtual House of European Culture: e-AGORA (Electronic Arts for Geographically Open Real Audience) 1 Objectives 2 E-Agora Architecture 2.1 E-Agora Client 2.2 E-Agora Server 3 Future Work References Author Index

this Book Constitutes The Refereed Proceedings Of The First International Conference On Virtual Storytelling, Icvs 2001, Held In Avignon, France, In September 2001. The 20 Revised Full Papers Presented Together With Four Invited Papers Were Carefully Reviewed And Selected For Inclusion In The Proceedings. The Book Offers Topical Sections On New Techniques, Authoring Tools, A New Form Of Narration, Virtual Characters, And Applications.