Scientists Use Virtual World to Support Troops
(August 6, 2009) |
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| WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2009 – Scientists are
using virtual online worlds to improve the flow of
information and support to servicemembers returning from
deployments.
Jacquelyn Morie of the University of Southern California's
Institute for Creative Technologies discussed the
“Transitional Online Post-deployment Soldier Support in
Virtual Worlds” project during a July 29 webcast of “Armed
with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern
Military” on Pentagon Web radio.
Also known as “Coming Home,” the project will create a space
within Second Life -- a 3-D online virtual community --
dedicated to providing camaraderie, support and resources
for returning soldiers trying to reintegrate into civilian
life.
“Second Life is unique because it allows users to build
things and own the things they build,” Morie said. “It has a
huge range; whatever people can imagine and dream, they can
build there. You're represented by a 3-D avatar, so you can
represent yourself however you feel is appropriate for who
you are.”
The project incorporates immersive games, virtual world
expertise and virtual human intelligence. Coming Home will
be populated with artificial, intelligence-driven virtual
characters that can aid veterans in finding support and
therapies.
“You can think of it as the VFW hall of the 21st century,”
Morie explained. “Most veterans, when they come back, are
not collocated into neighborhoods the way people were in
World War II. So this gives people a chance to be together,
even if they're widely dispersed.”
Morie's research team also is developing an online veterans
center that focuses on social activities and complementary
and alternative medical interventions that can help prevent
stress and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“We're working with the Mindfulness Center in San Diego, and
they'll be running classes in Second Life in our land with
veterans,” Morie said. “We'll see how the veterans respond
to that and how the facilitators work.”
Morie said that the center also will create artificial,
intelligence-based avatars that will populate Second Life's
veterans' center.
The institute is widely known for its research on “virtual
humans,” realistic, online characters that can converse,
understand, reason, and even exhibit emotions. These virtual
humans will provide services for users that otherwise might
require a real person to be logged into Second Life and
available at all times.
“We have virtual humans you can negotiate with, we have
virtual humans that serve as patients to therapists in
training, and we have virtual humans with emotional models
that can be very defensive,” Morie said. “Part of the
research in the veterans' center is to take those virtual
humans -- their intelligence -- and put them into avatars
that can be helpers in the virtual space.”
Much of what the institute does in its work is to merge
cutting-edge technology with social and psychological study.
The institute's artificial intelligence “agents” are being
developed for use in the Army as coaches or teachers in a
classroom setting, Morie said, as well as in the Second Life
environment.
“If we can supplement [simulation or real-life exercises]
with continued training within a virtual space, we're
offering something of a lot more value,” Morie said.
In the end, the institute's goal in Second Life is to create
an environment for veterans to network and find information
and assistance when dealing with the stresses of returning
from deployment, she said. |
By Ian Graham
Emerging Media, Defense Media Activity
Special to American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2009 |
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