Daily Note: Mixed Reality Agents

These notes are a summary of concepts presented in “MiRA-Mixed Reality Agents.”

Thomas Holz, Abraham G. Campbell, Gregory M. P. O’Hare, John W. Stafford, Alan Martin, and Mauro Dragone. 2011. MiRA-Mixed Reality Agents. Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Stud. 69, 4 (April, 2011), 251–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2010.10.001

  1. Introduction to Mixed Reality Agents
    • Definition
      • Agents embodied in Mixed Reality (MR) environments
    • Taxonomy of mixed reality agents based on
      • Agency: Weak vs. strong agency
      • Corporeal Presence: Virtual vs. physical representation
      • Interactive Capacity: Ability to sense and act on the environment
    • The design and implementation of mixed reality agents are shaped by their level of embodiment, agency, and interactivity in both the physical and virtual spaces
    • All mixed reality agents are embodied within the mixed reality environment, with varying degrees of corporeal presence and interaction capacities
  2. Key Attributes
    • Autonomy
      • Operates independently without human intervention
    • Sociability
      • Interacts with other agents and users
    • Reactivity
      • Perceives and responds to environmental changes
    • Proactivity
      • Exhibits goal-directed behavior and takes initiative
    • Situatedness
      • Operates within a specific environment, sensing and acting on it
  3. Types of Agents: Weak vs. Strong
    • Weak agents
      • Basic autonomy, reactivity, and proactivity
    • Strong agents
      • Include mentalistic attitudes (knowledge, beliefs, intentions, obligations)
    • Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) model
      • Defines agent behavior in terms of beliefs, desires, and intentions
  4. Multi-Agent Systems and Applications
    • Agent-based computing
      • Ideal for complex, scalable, dynamic systems
    • Human-computer interaction
      • Autonomous agents act as interface agents or user assistants, performing tasks based on high-level user goals
    • Autonomy in human-computer interaction
      • Agents perform lower-level computations while users focus on higher-level supervision
  5. Embodiment in Agents
    • Structural coupling
      • Agents interact with and are affected by their environment
    • Historical embodiment
      • An agent’s history of interaction shapes its embodiment
    • Physical embodiment
      • Presence of a body through which the agent interacts with the environment
    • Biological embodiment
      • Only living systems are considered embodied
    • Social embodiment
      • Interaction with the social environment, including other agents and human users
  6. Embodiment in Mixed Reality
    • Environmental context
      • Agent is situated in a particular environment, senses, and interacts with it and its occupants
    • Milgram and Kishino’s Reality-Virtuality Continuum
      • Mixed reality is the space between purely physical and purely virtual environments
    • Sub-spaces in mixed reality
      • Physical sub-space
      • Virtual sub-space
  7. Corporeal Presence in Mixed Reality Agents
    • Stronger corporeal presence in virtual domain
      • Agents have a stronger presence in the virtual than the physical world
    • Stronger corporeal presence in physical domain
      • Agents have a stronger presence in the physical than the virtual world
    • Equal presence in both domains
      • Agents have equal presence in both virtual and physical domains of the MR environment