Virtual humans : today and tomorrow / David Burden, Maggi Savin-Baden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burden, David, author.

Savin-Baden, Maggi, 1960- author.

Series:

Chapman & Hall/CRC artificial intelligence and robotics series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Robotics.

Robots--Design.

Robots.

Artificial intelligence.

Personality--Computer simulation.

Personality.

Computer simulation.

Physical Description:

xxxii, 286 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, [2019]

Biography/History:

David Burden is a Chartered European Engineer and the Founder and CEO of Daden Limited; Maggi Savin-Baden is a Professor of Education at the University of Worcester

Summary:

"Virtual Humans provides a much-needed definition of what constitutes a 'virtual human' and places virtual humans within the wider context of Artificial Intelligence development. It explores the technical approaches to creating a virtual human, as well as emergent issues such as embodiment, identity, agency and digital immortality, and the resulting ethical challenges. The book presents an overview of current research and practice in this area, and outlines the major challenges faced by today's developers and researchers. The book examines the possibility for using virtual humans in a variety of roles, from personal assistants to teaching, coaching and knowledge management, and the book situates these discussions around familiar applications (e.g. Siri, Cortana, Alexa) and the portrayal of virtual humans within Science Fiction. Features: Presents a comprehensive overview of this rapidly developing field; Provides an array of relevant, real-life examples from expert practitioners and researchers from around the globe in how to create the avatar body, mind, senses and ability to communicate; Intends to be broad in scope yet practical in approach, so that it can serve the needs of several different audiences, including researchers, teachers, developers and anyone with an interest in where these technologies might take us; Covers a wide variety of issues which have been neglected in other research texts; for example, definitions and taxonomies, the ethical challenges of virtual humans and issues around digital immortality; Includes numerous examples and extensive references."--Back cover.

Contents:

Section I: The landscape. What are virtual humans? ; Virtual humans and artificial intelligence

Section II: Technology. Body and senses ; Mind ; Communications ; Architecture ; Embodiment ; Assembling and assemblages

Section III: Issues and futures. Digital ethics ; Identity and agency ; Virtual humans for education ; Digital immortality ; Futures and possibilities

Glossary.

Notes:

"A Chapman & Hall Book".

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

113855801X

9781138558014

OCLC:

1054373826