Browsing by Subject "human-computer interaction"

Objectives: GPS technology enables the visualisation of a map reader's location on a mobile map. Earlier research on the cognitive aspects of map reading identified that searching for map-environment points is an essential element for the process of determining one's location on a mobile map. Map-environment points refer to objects that are visualized on the map and are recognizable in the environment. However, because the GPS usually adds only one point to the map that has a relation to the environment, it does not provide a sufficient amount of information for self-location. The aim of the present thesis was to assess the effect of GPS on the cognitive processes involved in determining one's location on a map. Methods: The effect of GPS on self-location was studied in a field experiment. The subjects were shown a target on a mobile map, and they were asked to point in the direction of the target. In order for the map reader to be able to deduce the direction of the target, he/she has to locate himself/herself on the map. During the pointing tasks, the subjects were asked to think aloud. The data from the experiment were used to analyze the effect of the GPS on the time needed to perform the task. The subjects verbal data was used to assess the effect of the GPS on the number of landmark concepts mentioned during a task (landmark concepts are words referring to objects that can be recognized both on the map and in the environment). Results and conclusions: The results from the experiment indicate that the GPS reduces the time needed to locate oneself on a map. The analysis of the verbal data revealed that the GPS reduces the number of landmark concepts in the protocols. The findings suggest that the GPS guides the subject's search for the map-environment points and narrows the area on the map that must be searched for self-location.

While natural language generation (NLG) and large-language models (LLM) seem to be transforming many industries, video games have yet to be affected. This study investigates the potential of using NLG systems to generate dialogue for non-playable characters (NPCs) in role-playing games (RPGs). For this, dialogue data is extracted from six popular RPGs and is then used to fine-tune Microsoft’s GODEL to create an “RPG chatbot” (RPG-GPT). Motivated by computational creativity frameworks, a survey and an interactive experiment were conducted to evaluate the creativity and the effectiveness of RPG-GPT in generating relevant and engaging responses to player input. Survey respondents rated dialogues on a 5-point agree-disagree Likert scale, with questions related to e.g. the relevance of the NPC answers. Results indicate that RPG-GPT can provide relevant responses with a mean difference of game relevance of 3.93 vs. 3.85 of RPG-GPT (p=0.0364). Also, the participants of the interactive experiment reported engagement when interacting with RPG-GPT. Overall, the results suggest that creative NLG has the potential to enhance gaming experiences through task-oriented game dialogue (TOGD) systems. In this framework, creative TOGD systems could solve a common issue where pre-written NPCs are unable to provide the specific information sought by players. Additionally, the study discusses a concept of how players through their interaction with the NLG models can expand the lore of a game, which is a new consideration for game designers and developers when implementing such systems. Future work could explore ways to incorporate external knowledge and context to improve the performance of a TOGD system.