A Simple Virtual Actor Model Supporting Believable Character Reasoning in Virtual Environments

An artifact needs to possess a human-level social-emotional intelligence in order to be accepted as a team member and to be productive in the team. A general theoretical model describing this kind of artificial intelligence is currently missing. This work makes one step toward its development, using a simplistic virtual environment paradigm and an emotional biologically inspired cognitive architecture as the basis. We describe a Virtual Actor model supporting believable character reasoning. The model was implemented and tested in a pilot experiment in a virtual environment involving human participants. Preliminary results indicate that a Virtual Actor of this sort can be believable and socially acceptable in a small heterogeneous group.