DARPA's 'Social Puppet'

Roland Piquepaille writes "Videogame creators are heavily using software to animate objects or characters without reprogramming them between two scenes. Now, game designers from the University of Southern California (USC) have developed 'Social Puppet,' a computer engine to 'help soldiers learn unfamiliar languages by interacting with animated characters.' For this project, financed by DARPA, the researchers have used their expertise in previous videogames used by the armed forces, such as 'Tactical Iraqi.' But previous games were focused on teaching language and customs while Social Puppet is giving on-screen characters human non-verbal communication behaviors."

crowd control on the keyboard

[jonastullus]

great, now soldiers will learn crowd control and interacting with other cultures in the isolation of a computer.

i don't want to be too cynical, and i'm sure this is an interesting approach, but i still would prefer soldiers to get this kind of cultural briefing in a less synthetical environment. like spending a few days with people from the target culture, or even better, spending a few days in a country where such a culture persists.

verbal and non-verbal communication when controlling a (possibly violent) situation is hard enough with people understanding each others signals. when cultures clash that haven't met before (for the participants) this can be aggravated to utmost misunderstandings.

at least, this kind of thing is given some thought, instead of sending people around the world (who've never gotten out of their hometown before) without prior cultural briefings.