Reusable, interactive, multilingual online avatars

This paper details a system for delivering reusable, interactive multilingual avatars in online children's games. The development of these avatars is based on the concept of an intelligent media object that can be repurposed across different productions. The system is both language and character independent, allowing content to be reused in a variety of contexts and locales. In the current implementation, the user is provided with an interactive animated robot character that can be dressed with a range of body parts chosen by the user in real-time. The robot character reacts to each selection of a new part in a different manner, relative to simple narrative constructs that define a number of scripted responses. Once configured, the robot character subsequently appears as a help avatar throughout the rest of the game. At time of writing, the system is currently in beta testing on the My Tiny Planets website to fully assess its effectiveness.