<p><a href="http://bit.ly/cPXXTJ">This</a> TED talk by Peter Molyneux:</p>
<blockquote><p><i>"...demos Milo, a hotly anticipated video game for
Microsoft's Kinect controller. Perceptive and impressionable like a real
11-year-old, the virtual boy watches, listens and learns --
recognizing and responding to you."</i></p></blockquote>
<p>The demonstration begins with an explanation of how Milo is
constructed. A combination of the following three elements allow Milo to
exist:</p>
<ol><li>A Kinect Camera</li><li>Artificial Intelligence developed by Microsoft</li><li>Emotional Artificial Intelligence built by Lionhead Studios.</li></ol>
<p>Milo moves through a synthetic environment predicated on
User-directed biofeedback/body gestures: no mechanical controllers are
necessary. Unfortunately, Milo's introductory learning curve [which is
integral to the "game" leveling system] involves inherent gender bias:
if you're a girl, your initial game variable is a Butterfly whereas if
your a boy, you'll be presented with a Snail.</p>
<p>The demonstration goes on to illustrate how Milo's face is comprehensively AI driven. His facial movements include <a title="Voight Kampff Machine" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voight-Kampff_machine" target="_blank">blush response</a>,
nostril "flare" size [indicating stress], "body matching" [causing
neuro-linguistically driven facial alterations] and responses to verbal
cues. Peter then describes how Milo's personality development is
predicated on a Cause-and-Effect dynamic. This causality is showcased
via 3 examples:</p>
<ol><li>The User can choose to direct Milo to squash a snail: if the User
does it will effect "...how Milo develops". The specifics of the verbal
stimulus employed including<i> how</i> the User vocalises [specific
phrases and intonations] all contribute to a database that informs and
effects future interactions.</li><li>The User teaches Milo to skim stones over the surface of a river [skewed gender stereotyping is again evident here].</li><li>The User choosing to clean Milo's room: Milo's recognition of the
User's beneficial intervention and verbal engagement promotes sustained
developmental interaction based on [what Peter terms] "deep psychology".</li></ol>
<p>This "deep psychology" [or what is described in <a title="Unpacking the _Synthaptic_: Version 1." href="http://arsvirtuafoundation.org/research/2008/05/30/unpacking-the-_synthaptic_-version-1/" target="_blank">synthaptic</a> <a title="_Unpacking the _Synthaptic_: Version 1.1_" href="http://arsvirtuafoundation.org/research/2008/06/07/_unpacking-the-_synthaptic_-version-11_/" target="_blank">terms</a>
as "augmentology"] encourages a User's empathy loadings. This in turn
allows such games to shift towards complex experientially-defined
engagement. These games surpass the hollow reinforcement of <a title="Expert Game Designers Explain Social Augmented Reality Gaming And Virality" href="http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/08/expert-game-designers-explain-social-augmented-reality-gaming-and-virality/" target="_blank">contemporary Social Games such as Farmville</a>:
instead, the User "levels up" by knitting fictionalised engagement with
personality/identity construction and personalised growth variables.
The element of cloud-directed learning [coaching synthetic humans whose
social and chronological development depends on "crowdsourced" input]
creates enormous opportunties for instruction and feedback via this
"Reality Gaming" system.</p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Reality Engineer><br>Synthetic Environment Strategist><br>Game[r + ] Theorist.<br>::<a href="http://unhub.com/netwurker" target="_blank">http://unhub.com/netwurker</a> ::<br>
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