Teaching animated agents in virtual worlds

This paper describes the potential for instructing animated agents through collaborative dialog in a simulated environment. The abilities to share activity with a human instructor and employ both verbal and nonverbal modes of communication allow the agent to be taught in a manner natural for the instructor. A system that uses such shared activity and instruction to acquire the knowledge needed by an agent is described. This system is implemented in STEVE, an embodied agent that teaches physical tasks to human students