Responsive Virtual Human Museum Guides
With support from the National Science Foundation, the Museum of Science Boston is being engaged to work collaboratively with the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies to create life-sized 3D virtual, computer generated characters to serve as museum “educators” at the Museum of Science Boston in Boston, MA in four capacities:
1) As a natural language dialogue-based interactive “Guide” character, that can suggest exhibits to explore in a museum gallery and answer questions about particular Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) content areas, such as computer science.
2) As a “Coach” character to help visitors understand and use a particular interactive exhibit.
3) As the basis of a STEM-focused technology exhibit, The Science Behind the Virtual Humans.
4)As an ongoing research effort that capitalizes on museum visitor participation.
