Description
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
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I The Landscape
Chapter 1 What are Virtual Humans?
Chapter 2 Virtual Humans and Artificial Intelligence
Part II Technology
Chapter 3 Body and Senses
Chapter 4 Mind
Chapter 5 Communication
Chapter 6 Architecture
Chapter 7 Embodiment
Chapter 8 Assembling and Assemblages
Part III Identity
Chapter 9 Digital Ethics
Chapter 10 Identity and Agency
Chapter 11 Virtual Humans for Education
Chapter 12 Digital Immortality
Chapter 13 Futures and Possibilities
Glossary
