Agent and user inhabited virtual communities: A case study

We report about ongoing research in a virtual reality environment where visitors can interact with agents that help them to obtain information, to perform certain transactions and to collaborate with them in order to get some tasks done. This environment is a laboratory for research and experiments on users interacting with agents in multimodal ways, referring to visualized information and making use of knowledge possessed by domain agents, but also by agents that represent other visitors of this environment. Although the environment is tuned to a theatre environment, we think there are sufficient general properties in order to learn about other applications, e.g. other theme oriented, educational and entertainment environments and even electronic commerce environments. In addition, especially in the home environment, there will be a growing need for social interfaces that are inhabited by visualized domain agents, user agents, friends and relatives that help, advise, and ‘negotiate’ on matters that range from what to prepare for dinner to how to end a relationship.