Six monthly Progress Report

IST-2001-33310 VICTEC

February 2004

Progress Report No3 Sept03-Feb04

AUTHORS: R.S.Aylett

STATUS:Final

CHECKERS:S.A.Richardson/S Louchart

Project Manager

Name: Professor Ruth Aylett

Address: CVE, Business House, University of Salford, University Road,, Salford, M5 4WT

Phone Number: +44 161 295 2922

Fax Number:+44 161 295 2925

E-mail:

1- Summary of key indicators of project progress

All scheduled deliverables completed and delivered except for 1st technical Workshop, which takes place on Sept 17th.

All partners active in work programme and in project meetings

Progress Reports (every 6 month) - this report should provide an overall

assessment of the work carried out during the reporting period,

complementing the management reports, with a concise but informative

overview of the following topics:

*positioning of project development vis à vis world wide trends

*assessment of impact of current / foreseeable technical economical

social regulatory developments on project exploitation potential

*discuss if the initial assumptions are still valid or if new

(technological, socio-economic) developments suggest the need to revisit

the project objectives and the work description.

(The points covered in the presentation of Rui during the review meeting and

your additional comments on the subject, as well as the discussion of the

issues around the natural language interface and the additional research

issues raised by the ongoing work are good examples of information that

would fit quite well in the progress report)

Because the progress report is used as a basis for the cost statements

processing we suggest the inclusion of a consolidated view of the tables

"Project Effort" and "Cumulative Effort" of the management reports covering

the reporting period. Complement this with an explicit reference to the

relevant management reports (it avoids repeating all the content).

2 - Work progress overview

2.1 Specific objectives

2.2 Achievements

First version of toolkit delivered April 2003

Many bullying scenarios collected and story-boarded in all three partner countries

Scripted demonstrator used for evaluation

Large scale evaluation organised for June 2004

Substantial dissemination programme of talks and papers delivered

2.2.1 List of deliverables

Deliverables
Deliverable number / Planned delivery / Status / Actual delivery
D1.1.1v3 / Sept 03 / Completed and delivered / Aug 03
D3.3.1 / Apr 03 / Completed and delivered / Apr 03
D4.1.1 / Jun 03 / Completed and delivered / Jun 03
D6.3.1 / Jul 03 / Completed and delivered / Jul 03
D7.1.1 / Aug 03 / Completed and delivered / mid Sept 03
D5.2.1 / Aug 03 / Completed and delivered / mid Sept 03
D8.1.1 (video) / Jul 03 / Completed and delivered / Jul 03
D8.2.1 / Jul 03 / Completed and delivered / Jul 03

2.2.2 Progress by workpackage

WP1 Management and Dissemination (Month 1-30)

SALFORD:

Project meetings organised April in Bamberg and July in Aveiro

First draft of Consortium agreement circulated for comment

Two peer reviews for D1.1.1 received

Version 3 of Vision document circulated, agreed and delivered

Project admin officer left Apr 30, replacement in post May 15

Salford researcher left July 19, replacement to start Oct 1st

Initial preparation of a FP6 bid to Cognitive Systems around Empathic Characters

WP2 Learner Scenarios: How to establish empathic relations (Month 1-21)

HERTS:

Bullying scenarios collected, distributed and story-boarded using Kar2ouche

Herts bullying dramas scripted with a view to radio-play versions

Work on journal article on empathy carried out

Evaluation methods for both anti-bullying impact and empathy creation formulated

Work on FACE program as possible evaluation tool

Initial models of empathy and of bullying created

Video game experiment in empathy run and evaluated

WP3 VLE Architecture (Months 1-30)

SALFORD

Prototype authoring environment implemented

Initial evaluation of authoring tool

D3.3.1 delivered and peer reviewed

Runtime framework implemented

First integration steps of toolkit with runtime environment

Narrative mechanisms discussed and agreed

Use of Kar2ouche as story-boarding tool for bullying scenarios

Definition of requirements of gender issues picked up in WP2 work

WP4 Novel User Interfaces (Months 6-23)

AUTOR

Investigation of adding heartbeat to sentoy

Deliverable 4.1.1 produced and delivered

First link of sentoy to runtime environment

Discussion of role of toy in VICTEC interaction model

WP5- Empathic Characters for VLE (Months 6-23)

INESC

Implementation and animations for 4 characters (three boys and a girl)

Extensive character evaluation carried out using scripted demonstrator

Adaptation of the Agent architecture used in Teatrix for the context of VICTEC

Development of a learning agent architecture

Work with Sherer’s theory towards developing emotional model

Character language system specified and content collected using scenarios from WP2

Recording of multiple language inputs for character demo

Work on interface between view agents and graphical system

D 5.2.1 produced and delivered

WP6- Case Development (Months 11-30)

INESC

Evaluation of WP2 scenarios for interface definition

Document regarding the psychological requirements of the demonstrator produced

Preparation and delivery of D6.3.1

Discussion of gender issues arising from scenario storyboards

WP7- Evaluation in real situations (Months 15-30)

BAMBURG

Plans made for large-scale evaluation June 2004 including programme and funding applications

Bullying questionnaire piloted in schools in all three countries and results evaluated

Empathy questionnaire piloted in schools in all three countries and results evaluated

Deliverable 7.1.1 produced and delivered

WP8- Dissemination & exploitation (Months 4-30)

AUTOR

Project website at updated

Structure for dissemination and use plan circulated

Project video created and delivered as D8.1.1

Dissemination and use plan produced and delivered as D8.2.1

Ran stall at WEM event May 2003 Lisbon

Teachers’ presentation created and translated

First technical Workshop organised for Sept 2003

Poster delivered at SRCD (Society for Research in Child Development) conference

Poster delivered at XIth European Conference on Child Development

Presentation given at UK ChildLine event

Paper for journal Virtual Reality written, submitted and accepted

Four papers submitted and accepted for IVA2003 Conference

2.2.3 Deviations and corrections

Issue Description
/
Actions
Project admin support worker on maternity leave Oct 2003-Jan 2004
New Salford researcher recruited Oct 2003 left end Dec 2003 / Replacement recruited to start Dec 1st 2003
INESC designer left Jun 2003 / Use of other designers

2.3 Project reviews

None in this period

2.4 Work planned for next reporting period

First VICTEC technical workshop to be held (September 2003)

Planning of second VICTEC technical workshop

Production of D2.1.3 Revised scenarios requirements definition for the demonstrator

Production of 5.3.1 Final prototype of empathic synthetic characters and integration

Production of D6.4.1 First Prototype of the bullying demonstrator and peer reviews

Production of D4.2.1 Final prototype of the interface toy component

Finalisation of June 2004 evaluation event

Enhanced version of the authoring toolkit

3-Project management

Red Flag Description / Recommended Solutions
NONE

4-Meetings Attended

-ChildLine conference on Bullying Mar 25th Herts & Salford

-Bamberg presented preliminary results of the empathy questionnaire to G. Fieblinger and teachers in Kassel in March

-Herts visited St Johns and Maple JMI schools in March for story board evaluation using Kar2ouche and questionnaire

-ICCM conference 10th-12th April Bamberg – Salford, Bamberg

-Meeting with Immersive Education in Oxford 22nd April – Salford

-SRCD Biennial Meeting Conference (Society for Research into child Development), Tampa, Florida, 23rd-27th April 2003 - Herts

-Digital Story-Telling workshop in Darmstadt 24th-26th April Salford

-World Education Market event (WEM) in Lisbon 20-23 May INESC & AUTOR

-Conference - FACT (Networked narrative environment) Liverpool on 23rd May - Salford

-Symposium in Vienna "More than Virtual Tutors". June 23-24. INESC

-Quarterly project meeting in Aveiro Jul 16-17 attended by all partners

-XIth European Conference on Developmental Psychology Milan August 27 – 31 Herts & Bamberg

-Meetings between Salford and Salford Drama Dept re recording bullying scenarios as radio plays

Originally Planned Quarterly Monthly Human Resource Allocation (year 1-cumulative)
Partner / Organ. Short Name / WP1 / WP2 / WP3 / WP4 / WP5 / WP6 / WP7 / WP8 / Total
CO1 / Salford / 1.4 / 1 / 2.5 / 4.9
CR2 / Herts / 2.4 / 2.4
CR3 / Bamburg / 2.4 / 2.4
CR4 / Inesc-ID / 0.6 / 1.2 / 1.8
CR5 / Autor / 0.6 / 0.5 / 1.1
Tot. / 1.4 / 7.0 / 4.2 / 12.6

.

Actually spent in 3 months of human resource allocation (without background effort)
Partner / Organ. Short Name / WP1 / WP2 / WP3 / WP4 / WP5 / WP6 / WP7 / WP8 / Total
CO1 / Salford / 1.5 / 0.5 / 3.0 / 5.0
CR2 / Herts / 2.0 / 2.0
CR3 / Bamburg / 2.0 / 2.0
CR4 / Inesc-ID / 0.25 / 0.75 / 1.0
CR5 / Autor / 0.5 / 0.5 / 1.0
Tot. / 1.5 / 5.25 / 4.25 / 11.0

All figures in MMs

Equipment Expenditures
Date / Description / Used for / Amount
April / Computers / USAL / € 10500
April / Computer / USAL – Project coordination / €1400
April / Computers / UH / €11800
April / Computers / UBI BA / €7500
April / Computers / INESC – ID / €11100
April / Computer / Autor / €5900
Material Expenditures
Date / Description / Used for / Amount
May / Software / USAL (3D Studio Max & Adobe) / €1700
Services Expenditures
Date / Description / Used for / Amount
Other Expenditures
Date / Description / Used for / Amount
Travel Expenditures
Date / Duration/Location / Meeting, Conference, etc. / Amount
March / 2 Days Salford / USAL supply of Lunch & Dinner / €850
March / 2 days Salford / Project meeting 4 people from UH / €550
March / 2 days Salford / Project Meeting 2 people Uni BA / €1700
March / 2 days Salford / Project Meeting 3 people INESC ID / €2200
March / 2 days Salford / Project Meeting 1 person AUTOR / €850
April / 3 days London / AISB conference 3 people USAL / €1170
April / 3 days London / AISB conference 2 people UH / €750
April / 3 days London / AISB conference 3 people INESC – ID / €1700

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