EMOTE: Embodied-perceptive tutors for empathy-based learning in a game environment

Abstract

Significant work has been devoted to the design of artificial tutors with human capabilities with the aim of helping increase the efficiency achieved with a human instructor. Yet, these systems still lack the personal, empathic and human elements that characterise a traditional teacher and fail to engage and motivate students in the same way a human teacher does. The EU-funded project EMOTE (EMbOdied-perceptive Tutors for Empathy-based learning) has recently started, and will continue until the end of 2015. The project aims to design, develop and evaluate a new generation of virtual and robotic embodied tutors that have perceptive capabilities to engage in empathic interactions with learners in a shared physical space. In this paper we wish to discuss the approach we are taking in the project as well as how the project may contribute to knowledge relevant for the Games-Based Learning community.