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Abstract—Exploratory activities seem to be intrinsically rewarding for children and crucial for their cognitive development. Can a machine be endowed with such an intrinsic motivation system? This is the question we study in this paper, presenting a number of computational systems that try to capture this drive towards novel or curious situations. After discussing related research coming from developmental psychology, neuroscience, developmental robotics, and active learning, this paper presents the mechanism of Intelligent Adaptive Curiosity, an intrinsic motivation system which pushes a robot towards situations in which it maximizes its learning progress. This drive makes the robot focus on situations which are neither too predictable nor too unpredictable, thus permitting autonomous mental development. The complexity of the robot’s activities autonomously increases and complex developmental sequences self-organize without

We present a survey of design issues for developing effective free-space three-dimensional (3D) user interfaces. Our survey is based upon previous work in 3D interaction, our experience in developing free-space interfaces, and our informal observations of test users. We illustrate our design issues using examples drawn from instances of 3D interfaces. For example, our first issue suggests that users have difficulty understanding three-dimensional space. We offer a set of strategies which may help users to better perceive a 3D virtual environment, including the use of spatial references, relative gesture, two-handed interaction, multisensory feedback, physical constraints, and head tracking. We describe interfaces which employ these strategies. Our major contribution is the synthesis of many scattered results, observations, and examples into a common framework. This framework should serve as a guide to researchers or systems builders who may not be familiar with design issues in spatial input. Where appropriate, we also try to identify areas in free-space 3D interaction which we see as likely candidates for additional research. An extended and annotated version of the references list for this paper is available on-line through mosaic at address

This paper presents an interactive technique for moving through an immersive virtual environment (or "virtual reality"). The technique is suitable for applications where locomotion is restricted to ground level. The technique is derived from the idea that presence in virtual environments may be enhanced the stronger the match between proprioceptive information from human body movements, and sensory feedback from the computer generated displays. The technique is an attempt to simulate body movements associated with walking. The participant "walks in place" to move through the virtual environment across distances greater than the physical limitations imposed by the electro-magnetic tracking devices. A neural network is used to analyse the stream of coordinates from the head-mounted display, to determine whether or not the participant is walking on the spot. Whenever it determines the walking behaviour, the participant is moved through virtual space in the direction of gaze. We discuss tw...

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There is much shallow thinking about emotions, and a huge diversity of definitions of “emotion ” arises out of this shallowness. Too often the definitions and theories are inspired either by a mixture of introspection and selective common sense, or by a misdirected neo-behaviourist methodology, attempting to define emotions and other mental states in terms of observables. One way to avoid such shallowness, and perhaps eventually achieve convergence, is to base concepts and theories on an information processing architecture, which is subject to various constraints, including evolvability, implementability, coping with resource-limited physical mechanisms, and human-like functionality. Within such an architecture-based theory we can distinguish (at least) primary emotions, secondary emotions, and tertiary emotions, and produce a coherent theory which explains a wide range of phenomena and also partly explains the diversity of theories: most theorists focus on only a subset of types of emotions.

This paper contrasts the standard (in AI) "modular" theory of the nature of vision with a more general (labyrinthine) theory of vision as involving multiple functions and multiple relationships with other sub-systems of an intelligent system.

. The methodology of AI as the general study of natural and artificial intelligence is outlined, including exploration of designs for a variety of behaving systems, for both scientific and engineering purposes. The `design-stance' treats minds as sophisticated self-monitoring, self-modifying control systems. Different architectures can satisfy that description. Exploration of possible requirements and designs for complete agents is important not only for engineering purposes but also for bringing together hitherto fragmentary studies of mind in various disciplines, providing a basis for an adequate set of descriptive concepts, clarifying various evolutionary questions, and making it possible to understand what goes wrong in various human activities and which remedies might work. This requires studying niches as well as designs. 1 INTRODUCTION Few people appreciate the breadth of AI. Many construe it as merely a branch of engineering. Some construe it as restricted to `central' cogniti...

Abstract. Several systems have been designed where a physical object is used to access digital information that is stored outside the object, but as yet no common vocabulary exists to describe such systems. We introduce a schema with three types of physical objects that can be linked to digital information: Containers are generic objects used to move information between different devices or platforms; tokens are used to access stored information, the nature of which is physically reflected in the token in some way; and tools are used to manipulate digital information. This paper gives special notice to token-based access system, and design implications for such systems are discussed. As an example of token-based access we have implemented WebStickers, where physical objects can be coupled with WWW pages. We present some examples of how tokens are used to access digital information in this system, and discuss future work in this area. 1

The coming ubiquity of computational things urges us to consider what it means for something to be present in someone’s life, in contrast to being just used for something. ‘Use’ and ‘presence’ represent two perspectives on what a thing is. While use refers to a general description of a thing in terms of what it is used for, presence refers to existential definitions of a thing based on how we invite and accept it as a part of our lifeworld. Searching for a basis on which these existential definitions are formed, we argue that the expressions of things are central for accepting them as present in our lives. We introduce the notion of an expressional, referring to a thing designed to be the bearer of certain expressions, just as an appliance is designed to be the bearer of certain functionality. Aesthetics, as a logic of expressions, can provide a proper foundation for design for presence. We discuss the expressiveness of computational things as depending both on time structures and space structures. An aesthetical leitmotif for the design of computational things –a leitmotif that may be used to guide a normative design philosophy, or a design style – is described. Finally, we describe a practical example of what designing a mobile phone as an ‘expressional’ might be like.