Avaliação de arquitetura de agentes emocionais : uma abordagem baseada em métrica de qualidade e na influência das emoções sobre usuários

There is a need for multi-agent system designers in determining the quality of systems in the earliest phases of the development process. The architectures of the agents are also part of the design of these systems, and therefore also need to have their quality evaluated. Motivated by the important role that emotions play in our daily lives, embodied agents researchers have aimed to create agents capable of producing affective and natural interaction with users that produces a beneficial or desirable result. For this, several studies proposing architectures of agents with emotions arose without the accompaniment of appropriate methods for the assessment of these architectures. The objective of this study is to propose a methodology for evaluating architectures emotional agents, which evaluates the quality attributes of the design of architectures, in addition to evaluation of human-computer interaction, the effects on the subjective experience of users of applications that implement it. The methodology is based on a model of well-defined metrics. In assessing the quality of architectural design, the attributes assessed are: extensibility, modularity and complexity. In assessing the effects on users' subjective experience, which involves the implementation of the architecture in an application and we suggest to be the domain of computer games, the metrics are: enjoyment, felt support, warm, caring, trust, cooperation, intelligence, interestingness, naturalness of emotional reactions, believabiliy, reducing of frustration and likeability, and the average time and average attempts. We experimented with this approach and evaluate five architectures emotional agents: BDIE, DETT, Camurra-Coglio, EBDI, Emotional-BDI. Two of the architectures, BDIE and EBDI, were implemented in a version of the game Minesweeper and evaluated for human-computer interaction. In the results, DETT stood out with the best architectural design. Users who have played the version of the game with emotional agents performed better than those who played without agents. In assessing the subjective experience of users, the differences between the architectures were insignificant

A experiência do usuário idoso no design de jogo digital para a reabilitação neural de pacientes com quadro de acidente vascular cerebral (AVC)

Stroke is nowadays one of the main causes of death in Brazil and worldwide. During the rehabilitation process, patients undergo physioterapic exercises based on repetition, which may cause them to feel little progress is being made. Focusing on themes from the areas of Human-Computer Interaction and Motor Imagery, the present work describes the development of a digital game concept aimed at motor rehabilitation to the neural rehabilitation of patients who have suffered a stroke in a playful and engaging way. The research hypothesizes that an interactive digital game based on Motor Imagery contributes to patients' raised commitment in the stroke sequel rehabilitation process. The research process entailed the investigation of 10 subjects who live with sequels caused by stroke - it was further established that subjects were over 60 years old. Using as foundation an initial survey regarding target-users' specificities, where an investigation on subjectrelated aspects was carried out through Focus Group (n=9) and Contextual Analysis (n=3), having as subjects elderly individuals, a list with the necessary requirements for the conceptualization of a digital game was fleshed out. The initial survey also enabled the establishment of preliminary interactions for the formulation of game prototypes. At first, low-resolution prototypes were used, with two distinct interaction models for the game - one with a direct approach to the Motor Imagery concept, and another using a narrative with characters and scene settings. The goal was to verify participants' receptivity regarding the addition of playful activities into game dynamics. Prototypes were analyzed while being used by five patients, through the Cooperative Evaluation technique. The tests indicated a preference for option with elements in a playful narrative. Based on these results high fidelity prototypes were created, where concepts close to the game's final version were elaborated. The High Fidelity prototype was also evaluated with four patients through the Cooperative Evaluation technique. It was concluded that elderly individuals and patients were receptive to the idea of a digital game for the rehabilitation from sequels caused by stroke; that, for the success of devices aimed at these cohorts, their contexts, needs and expectations must be respected above all; and that user-centered design is an essential approach in that regard.