Introducing Emotion into Military Simulation and Videogame Design: America’s Army: Operations and VIRTE

Publication Type  Journal Article
Year of Publication  2002
Authors  Shilling, Russell; Zyda, Michael; Wardynski, E. Casey
Key Words  America’s Army; VIRTE; emotion; videogames; sound; design; audio; physiology; memory; learning; training
Abstract  

Emotion is a key component for sound design in movies and videogames. We believe that it is also a key component in virtual environments and simulation. The following paper summarizes work at the MOVES Institute's Immersive Audio Laboratory which demonstrates the emotional impact of sound in interactive media and also shows that emotionality evoked in a simulation has a positive impact on learning for events that occur in the simulation. Our research methods employ objective measures such as physiological recordings and memory recall testing rather than the more commonly used subjective questionnaires and surveys. It is our belief that these objective measures are more easily replicated and generalized to a wide variety of simulations and situations. We discuss our research in terms of the parallel development in the MOVES Institute of the videogame "America's Army: Operations," which we use as an experimental test bed and tool. Applications of this research are discussed in terms of high-end simulation projects like the Virtual Technologies and Environments (VIRTE) program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.

Notes  

BIOGRAPHY
LCDR Russell Shilling, Ph.D. is a U.S. Naval Aerospace Experimental Psychologist and the Technical Director for Immersive Technologies in the MOVES Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School(NPS) in Monterey, CA. and the lead audio engineer and sound designer for America’s Army: Operations. He joined the Navy in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he studied neuroscience and auditory psychophysics. Prior to arriving at NPS, he conducted research on virtual environments at the
Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division and the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Russell Shilling (MOVES Institute; 833 Dyer Road , Room 254); Michael Zyda (MOVES Institute; 833 Dyer Road , Room 254);

URL  http://gamepipe.usc.edu/~zyda/pubs/ShillingGameon2002.pdf
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