Reflections on New Technologies: Virtual Steve
EDIT 750, Fall 2002

Virtual Steve (www.isi.edu/isd/johnson-body.html)
Description
Virtual Steve is an intelligent software agent designed to provide training in virtual environments, both in individual and team settings. An acronym for Soar Training Expert and Virtual Environments (STEVE), Steve has been applied to naval training tasks such as operating the engines aboard US Navy surface ships. In an article posted on USC/Information Sciences Institute's (ISI) Web site, W. Lewis Johnson, director of the Center for Advanced Research in Technology, describes Steve as a pedagogical agent that adapts its behavior to the dynamic state of the learning environment, taking advantage of learning opportunities as they arise. An outgrowth of the Artificial Intelligence branch of Computer Science, Steve software is combined with 3D display and interaction software by Lockheed Martin, simulation authoring software by USC Behavioral Technologies Laboratory, and speech recognition and generation software by Entropic Research, to produce a rich virtual environment in which students and agent can interact in instructional settings.

Feature/Function Highlights
In a downloadable demo available on the ISI Web site, the visitor can interact with Virtual Steve as he demonstrates how to operate a High Pressure Air Compressor (HPAC) aboard a US Navy ship. The matrix below highlights the software's key features and functions.

Virtual Steve Functions and Features

Function	Features
Instructional Model	Demonstration integrated with explanatory commentary Agent points out important features of the objects in the environment that relate to the task Student is free to move around in the environment and view the demo from various perspectives
Learner Control	Student can request a demo of the operation of the HPAC in different initial states and failure modes Student can say "Let me finish" to Steve, so that the student can complete the task himself while Steve monitors the student's actions Student can ask "Show me what to do" in the event the student encounters difficulties Steve dynamically directs his gaze toward the student during the demo, to attract student attention/response. Students can request "hints" to guide them at any time, except when the student is being tested on their proficiency with the skill being taught.

Evaluation

• User experience
  Virtual Steve certainly lends itself to procedural tasks and psychomotor skills, but may also be applicable to cognitive skill-building. At the moment, the voice and visual appearance of Steve has the look of MTV-like animated graphics - the Dire Straits music video of the song "Money for Nothing" comes to mind - that may not appeal to the user in a more white collar, business setting or to the more mature learner in an academic setting. However, the ISI group has developed another agent - Adele - for the medical profession that has a more "human" look and voice. This indicates that the capability to improve upon Steve is certainly there and that improvements are inevitable as the project progresses.

• System maintenance/integrity
  Although no technical specifications have been published as yet, it is clear that Virtual Steve is designed for the network environment and requires a relatively robust systems infrastructure with technical support. As such, the decision to use Virtual Steve once it becomes available would be an organizational one, not an individual one.

My net impressions of Virtual Steve are generally positive, although I recognize that it is still a work in progress. It also occurred to me that Virtual Steve would be an excellent product/service marketing tool, demonstrating products or discussing services to a prospect. This would certainly reduce an organization's cost of sale, assuming Steve could be accessed via a standard Web browser.