Estudio y mejora de la usabilidad de un mundo virtual híbrido: interacción humano-agente

Abstract

Nowadays, due to the increasing use of the Internet and the improvements in the field of 3D graphics virtual worlds have reached a high popularity. A virtual world is a 3D simulation that features a real or imaginary world where the users, represented by avatars, interact with each other and the environment. These open 3D environments are attractive for their immersiveness and the enjoyment they offer, as well as for the social aspect that they bring by joining multiple users together in a common environment and engaging them to participate together. Taking into account not only their popularity but the many practical uses a virtual world has, serious virtual worlds arise. Their aim is to regulate the behaviors in the virtual world in order to allow certain tasks to be done, which can be for example procedures related to e-Government or e-Learning. In this project we have conducted a usability study of v-mWater, a serious and hybrid (where both humans and bots interact) virtual world. With the results that have been obtained from the study, we have implemented the most beneficial improvement of v-mWater, that has consisted in using AIML to allow the bots of v-mWater to process natural language, turning them into conversational bots.