Activity Monitoring and Management in Avatar-based Interactions

This paper describes the role of activity monitoring and management in a software platform (cybernetic avatar (CA) platform) to support avatar-based interactions. Avatar-based interaction differs in various aspects from conventional face-to-face interaction. For instance, it offers anonymity and parallel operability (i.e., a single operator can control multiple interactions simultaneously). On the other hand, it imposes a large burden on the operator due to the required avatar operations. Reducing the operator's burden is a crucial issue to consider in developing such a system. From the viewpoint of data analysis, it is easy to capture and record the activities of participants in avatar-based interaction because those interactions are carried out by explicit avatar operations via a network. In addition, the activities of human participants in such interaction are observed by sensor networks. Therefore, the data from avatar monitoring should contain many kinds of information on the human operators and interaction partners interacting with each other via the avatars. The activity monitoring and management functions enable various services to support human activities using avatars, including reduction of the operational burden. In this paper, we also address an operation recommendation system, as an example application of activity monitoring, which offers situation-dependent recommendations for the operator's speech and operations to reduce the operator's burden. Experimental results support the effectiveness of the proposed system.