<p> COLLOQUIUM Department of Computer Science and Engineering University of South Carolina Towards The Matrix: Intelligent Agents and Augmented Reality to Enhance Human Learning Performance M. Brian Blake Department of Computer Science Georgetown University</p><p>Date: January 17, 2008 Time: 1500-1600 Place: Swearingen 1A03 (Faculty Lounge) Abstract</p><p>In the blockbuster movie, “The Matrix”, characters tether themselves to a simulated world where they live their lives virtually. A feature of this sort of existence is that human beings can download training directly into their conscious. In the real world, attaching a 4 inch wire to a person’s brain may be impractical. However, using mobile augmented reality headsets might be the next best thing to directly deliver training routines. Furthermore, intelligent agents with a notion of process management can be used to provide specialized training to individuals wearing the headsets. Our preliminary work focuses on allowing agents to adaptively enhance these types of training scenarios. Training individuals from diverse backgrounds and in changing environments requires customized training approaches that align with the individual learning styles and ever-evolving organizational needs. Scaffolding is a well-established instructional approach that facilitates learning by incrementally removing training aids as the learner progresses. By combining multiple training aids (i.e. multimodal interfaces), a trainer, either human or virtual, must make real-time decisions about which aids to remove throughout the training scenario. A significant problem occurs in implementing scaffolding techniques since the speed and choice of removing training aids must be strongly correlated to the individual traits of a specific trainee. We detail an agent-based infrastructure that supports the customization of scaffolding routines as triggered by the performance of the trainee. This talk will describe the integration of this agent-based approach into a simulated augmented reality (AR) environment. Initial experiments using the simulated environment have evaluated the proposed adaptive approach against static training routines. Results show that the proposed approach increases the trainees’ task familiarity and speed with negligible insertion of errors.</p><p>M. Brian Blake is an Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Computer Science at Georgetown University. Dr. Blake conducts applied research in the development of automated approaches for the sharing of information and capabilities across organizational boundaries, sometimes referred to as enterprise integration. With respect to this area of interest, his investigations cover the spectrum of software engineering: design, specification, proof of correctness, implementation/experimentation, performance evaluation, and application. He has published over 80 journal articles and refereed conference papers in the areas of service-oriented computing, intelligent agents and workflow, enterprise systems integration, component-based software engineering, distributed data management, and software engineering education. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, DARPA, Federal Aviation Administration, the MITRE Corporation, Air Force Research Lab, SAIC, and the National Institute of Health. More information about Dr. Blake can be found at http://www.cs.georgetown.edu/~blakeb/</p>