The blog post title may have you scratching the top of your head a little bit…The “Uncanny Valley” is a phenomenon that leads to a reaction from an all ‘but-not-quite-right’ simulated human form, whether it be robotic or animated. The term was invented by roboticist Masahiro Mori to depict the negative emotional response ‘real’ humans exhibit when a robot (avatar) seems practically human. Appearance and action are the two biggest factors that could potentially lead to this phenomenon playing out while one is immersed in a virtual world. Thus the overall quality of the avatar is paramount in any type of training simulation, the worst thing you can do is lead the player to possess detachment from the training. The human brain never ceases to amaze me.
“Mori’s hypothesis states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong revulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.”
“This area of repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a “barely human” and “fully human” entity is called the uncanny valley. The name captures the idea that a robot which is “almost human” will seem overly “strange” to a human being and thus will fail to evoke the empathic response required for productive human-robot interaction.”
You can see by the graph representation below that the “valley” in question is a dip in the graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot’s lifelikeness.
In all fairness, I guess I should disclose that one such study that examined the Uncanny Valley principle did involve monkeys…Monkey see, monkey do.
For regular followers of the blog you have probably seen me write about avatars a time or two. Well good news- they are getting more and more realistic! So it’s no secret that various branches of the military are looking more and more closely at immersive technologies. A recent article in Signal Magazine entitled “Virtual Humans Keep it Real” outlined the Army-funded research for virtual reality being conducted at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies. A terrific example of groundbreaking technology coming from the University is with virtual humans (yes, I said virtual humans). Although these are not your ‘average’ avatar, rather they are computer programmed with artificial intelligence and capable of understanding language and able to respond appropriately. This conversation capability is not assisted in any way by a ‘real’ human and is complete with genuine emotions. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey wrote in Army Magazine, the idea is “to make training more rigorous and relevant by leveraging technology to create challenging training environments for our leaders.” So watch out for more realistic training coming to a computer near you!
So I’m sure that most of us have heard the term – “Death by Webinar” and yes, I too will confess to multi-tasking throughout a webinar. It just isn’t as interactive and interesting as other stuff I could be doing. So for WebEx and death by PowerPoint, oh the hours we have all spent putting together those snazzy little PowerPoint presentations. Are webinars really still a breakthrough technology? In my humble opinion the presenter of the webinar speeds through the slides and the attendees aren’t given the ability to learn at their own pace, providing for information transfer but not much learning.
So you have probably seen us post various tidbits on audio such as Emulating Human Voice-overs with TTS Voices on the blog. While solely utilizing text and graphics in simulations can work, the real question is: Does it really work? Voice talent is a large piece of the puzzle in any narrated simulation. Visual Purple simulations do allow for text (otherwise known as closed captioning) to appear in all of the simulation (not just at the decision points). Thus supporting those that learn better by reading as opposed to listening. Fully narrated scenes definitely enhance the learners’ cognitive processing, thus audio can be very effective for a variety of learning styles.
The Centre for People Development recently came out with a survey on trends in training… and survey says 73% of participants would prefer less classroom based courses. That’s a pretty high number of participants that are bored with current learning methods presented by their employer. And believe it or not, 87% were in favor of more e-learning/ mobile learning (which I translate into simulations). So there you have it, the trainees have spoken and they want more simulations!
According to the Encyclopedia of Educational Technology here are the 5 Levels of Simulation Design. Let’s start at the top…
Level 5: The Full Simulation
The most complex type of simulation design offering the trainee a fully immersive environment with all paths and options available.
Level 4: Multiple Input Paths
A more realistic type of simulation that offers the trainee/ learner the ability to gain a deeper understanding of more complex material presented.
Level 3: Data Input
Data entry or button choices highlight this level of simulation design. This method does offer a higher level of realism.
Level 2: Point and Click
This would be comparable to generic types of E-Learning simulation scenarios, just point and click. Nothing too complicated here folks!
Level 1: Screen Capture
Useful when doing an overview on a specific procedure, no real user interaction takes place on this level.
*Image courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Educational Technology
I have said it before and I’ll say it again – Gaming technology for military personnel is on the rise. High-ranking officials are getting up to speed and demanding engaging training tools for our troops. These tools are complementary to more costly dedicated training equipment and offer a unique, realistic and memorable experience for the soldier. One step in the right direction is that the military is getting more and more infused with virtual worlds. I have long lamented the benefits of virtual worlds for training our troops. TMCNet reported that “Virtual worlds also provide benefits to the military. They can introduce newer soldiers to a terrain and the local officials found in a country like Afghanistan. Or, they can help teach mechanics about how to repair airplanes or tanks.” Virtual world training allows for the soldiers to practice in a life-like simulation type of experience without all the inherent risks involved in battlefield OJT.
Children awe at being read stories from simple books that have textures for them to feel as a baby/ toddler to the grade school history text books. The point is that we are brought up around stories from an early age. Even though adults nowadays may be getting away from the traditional hardcover or paperback types of books, storytelling is still here. It may just reside in iPads and Kindles and the like instead. But what makes stories jump off the page? Well of course you can read a book full of text without pictures, while most of us tend to create specific images in our mind of the different scenarios being played out- is that really enough? By using “digital storytelling” the user is being immersed into a realistic environment that replicates the real world down to a tee.
“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.” –Robert McKee
Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling is the art utilizing computer-based tools to tell a story. So I consider Visual Purple’s intelligent training simulations to do the same. Although the storyline of a simulation is immersive by itself we pepper it with decision blocks (and yes we do use Hollywood writers to craft our intelligent training simulations). Digital Stories also may encompass audio narration, images/ reference materials, video clips, etc.
We finally jumped on the bandwagon and created a Visual Purple page on Facebook. Login and follow us on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Visual-Purple/80896550514
Elearning! Magazine recently came out with a report on Virtual Learning Environments: Trends and Insights. The report outlined that virtual learning environments are one of the fastest growing solutions for learning.
According to the report “In a June 2010 study conducted by Elearning! Media Group, 64 percent of all corporate respondents have implemented virtual learning within their organizations, and 18 percent more plan to add them. The same study reports virtual worlds for learning will grow 250 percent over the next year to 21 percent of enterprises. At the same time, social learning and collaboration is exploding, with 77 percent of enterprise using or planning to use these tools for learning.” Let me summarize that for you in case you weren’t paying attention…64 percent of respondents have implemented virtual learning within their organizations!
Elearning magazine highlights four virtual learning solutions: 1) Virtual worlds, 2) Virtual learning environment, 3) Virtual classroom and 4) Web meetings. While all four types do offer a sense of immersion these next generation environments should be chosen carefully to fit within an organization’s specific needs. For instance a huge benefit of virtual world training is that trainees can make mistakes without fear of being embarrassed in front of an entire classroom full of students. The report further breaks down these advantages of VLEs (otherwise known as Virtual Learning Environments):
-Slash training costs
-Extend reach
-Do more with less
-Create a stimulating learning environment
-Provide “always-on” access to content
I would say that all above advantages can also be transposed into a virtual world training environment as well.
