Design of a Virtual Player for Joint Improvisation with Humans in the Mirror Game

Zhai, Chao; Alderisio, Francesco; Słowiński, Piotr; Tsaneva-Atanasova, Krasimira; Bernardo, Mario di

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0154361

Cited by 29 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In previous studies, we examined improvised joint motion using the mirror game paradigm – a theater based practice in which two actors improvise synchronized and interesting motion together (Noy et al, 2011; Noy, 2014). In the experimental one-dimensional mirror game, pairs of participants create synchronized motion together by moving handles on parallel tracks (Noy et al, 2011, 2015b; Hart et al, 2014; Zhai et al, 2015; Zhao et al, 2015; Dahan et al, 2016; Gueugnon et al, 2016a; Słowiński et al, 2017). A main finding from these mirror game studies is that players can enter a dyadic pattern of synchronous movement using predictive control.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchrony in Joint Action Is Directed by Each Participant’s Motor Control System

2017

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In this work, we ask how the probability of achieving synchrony in joint action is affected by the choice of motion parameters of each individual. We use the mirror game paradigm to study how changes in leader’s motion parameters, specifically frequency and peak velocity, affect the probability of entering the state of co-confidence (CC) motion: a dyadic state of synchronized, smooth and co-predictive motions. In order to systematically study this question, we used a one-person version of the mirror game, where the participant mirrored piece-wise rhythmic movements produced by a computer on a graphics tablet. We systematically varied the frequency and peak velocity of the movements to determine how these parameters affect the likelihood of synchronized joint action. To assess synchrony in the mirror game we used the previously developed marker of co-confident (CC) motions: smooth, jitter-less and synchronized motions indicative of co-predicative control. We found that when mirroring movements with low frequencies (i.e., long duration movements), the participants never showed CC, and as the frequency of the stimuli increased, the probability of observing CC also increased. This finding is discussed in the framework of motor control studies showing an upper limit on the duration of smooth motion. We confirmed the relationship between motion parameters and the probability to perform CC with three sets of data of open-ended two-player mirror games. These findings demonstrate that when performing movements together, there are optimal movement frequencies to use in order to maximize the possibility of entering a state of synchronized joint action. It also shows that the ability to perform synchronized joint action is constrained by the properties of our motor control systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synchrony in Joint Action Is Directed by Each Participant’s Motor Control System

2017

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“…Unfortunately, the body of research aimed at formally modeling the dynamics of goal-directed multiagent perceptual motor activity for HMI applications remains rather small (13,(23)(24)(25). This is due, in part, to the assumed complexity of such behavior (i.e., the high dimensionality of the possible perceptual motor control solutions that can define a given multiagent environment task scenario) (26,27).…”

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confidence: 99%

Human social motor solutions for human–machine interaction in dynamical task contexts

Nalepka

Lamb

Kallen

et al. 2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Multiagent activity is commonplace in everyday life and can improve the behavioral efficiency of task performance and learning. Thus, augmenting social contexts with the use of interactive virtual and robotic agents is of great interest across health, sport, and industry domains. However, the effectiveness of human–machine interaction (HMI) to effectively train humans for future social encounters depends on the ability of artificial agents to respond to human coactors in a natural, human-like manner. One way to achieve effective HMI is by developing dynamical models utilizing dynamical motor primitives (DMPs) of human multiagent coordination that not only capture the behavioral dynamics of successful human performance but also, provide a tractable control architecture for computerized agents. Previous research has demonstrated how DMPs can successfully capture human-like dynamics of simple nonsocial, single-actor movements. However, it is unclear whether DMPs can be used to model more complex multiagent task scenarios. This study tested this human-centered approach to HMI using a complex dyadic shepherding task, in which pairs of coacting agents had to work together to corral and contain small herds of virtual sheep. Human–human and human–artificial agent dyads were tested across two different task contexts. The results revealed (i) that the performance of human–human dyads was equivalent to those composed of a human and the artificial agent and (ii) that, using a “Turing-like” methodology, most participants in the HMI condition were unaware that they were working alongside an artificial agent, further validating the isomorphism of human and artificial agent behavior.

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“…In addition, it is possible to implement new mathematical models (Snapp-Childs et al, 2011; Zhai et al, 2016) for the VP to perform as joint improviser with other virtual or human agents. Finally, we are exploring the possibility of extending Chronos over the Internet, where it is also necessary to deal with network latency issues.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, by defining ϕ d h,k as the difference between the phase of the leader (player h ) and that of the follower (player k ), positive values indicate that the designated leader is effectively leading the game while interacting with the follower (Zhai et al, 2016). …”

Section: Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel Computer-Based Set-Up to Study Movement Coordination in Human Ensembles

et al. 2017

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Existing experimental works on movement coordination in human ensembles mostly investigate situations where each subject is connected to all the others through direct visual and auditory coupling, so that unavoidable social interaction affects their coordination level. Here, we present a novel computer-based set-up to study movement coordination in human groups so as to minimize the influence of social interaction among participants and implement different visual pairings between them. In so doing, players can only take into consideration the motion of a designated subset of the others. This allows the evaluation of the exclusive effects on coordination of the structure of interconnections among the players in the group and their own dynamics. In addition, our set-up enables the deployment of virtual computer players to investigate dyadic interaction between a human and a virtual agent, as well as group synchronization in mixed teams of human and virtual agents. We show how this novel set-up can be employed to study coordination both in dyads and in groups over different structures of interconnections, in the presence as well as in the absence of virtual agents acting as followers or leaders. Finally, in order to illustrate the capabilities of the architecture, we describe some preliminary results. The platform is available to any researcher who wishes to unfold the mechanisms underlying group synchronization in human ensembles and shed light on its socio-psychological aspects.

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Design of a Virtual Player for Joint Improvisation with Humans in the Mirror Game

Cited by 29 publications

References 24 publications

Synchrony in Joint Action Is Directed by Each Participant’s Motor Control System

Synchrony in Joint Action Is Directed by Each Participant’s Motor Control System

Human social motor solutions for human–machine interaction in dynamical task contexts

A Novel Computer-Based Set-Up to Study Movement Coordination in Human Ensembles

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