SIGGRAPH presentation (PowerPoint)

Thesis Publication (pdf)

Quicktime Movie

Max and Morris Mouse
Synthetic Characters Group

Researchers:		Bruce Blumberg Daphna Buchsbaum
Project Web site:		http://web.media.mit.edu/~daphna/social_learning.html
Group Web site:		http://www.media.mit.edu/characters/

The aim of this project is to build animated characters who are able to learn by observing those around them. This will allow for rich social interactions with humans and each other. In human infants, the ability to learn by watching others, and in particular, the ability to imitate, could be crucial precursors to the development of appropriate social behavior. Ultimately, this leads to the ability to reason about the thoughts, intents, beliefs, and desires of others.

Max T. Mouse, an anthropomorphic animated mouse character, is able to observe the actions he sees his friend Morris Mouse performing, and compare them to the actions he knows how to perform. This matching process allows Max to accurately imitate Morris’s gestures and actions, even when provided with limited synthetic visual input.

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