Virtual professor

Abstract

The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Co-Space has always been aimed at providing players with the most realistic experience of exploring places in NTU and learning about them from the comfort of their desks. This project aims to contribute to the experience by delving further into the nature of the currently existing Non Player Characters (NPCs) and building upon it to develop the Virtual Professor, an NPC that exhibits characteristics that are more natural than those already in the Co-Space.

The project is divided into four general requirements. Each of these requirements focus on an aspect that will give the player a more natural feel towards the Virtual Professor, which will eventually be created and encompass these four features. These requirements are the Profile, Schedule, Knowledge and Emotions.

The project was developed such that the section on Profile encompasses the outlook of the Virtual Professor as a whole. What the professor is like, how he behaves, and what he likes and dislikes have all been integrated into his profile. The professor’s Schedule provides a new avenue for himself and other NPCs to interact within the Co-space. Using the Schedule, NPCs gain the ability to move around within the virtual campus, transitioning between scenes while remaining persistent with respect to time, thus giving a more lifelike representation on campus. Knowledge gives the professor specialised knowledge. Players may use this as a teaching tool to learn what the professor knows in depth by questioning him directly. Finally, the Emotion feature gives the professor a more human like thought process. Factors such as hunger will affect the way he behaves, interacts and responds to the player.

Though creating perfect virtual human would be near impossible, the four requirements, when eventually developed into features, will help to narrow the gap between static NPCs and actual virtual human clones. Perhaps in the future, more can be done to extend on the abilities of the Virtual Professor, thus narrowing the gap even further.