Brian Magerko, associate professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, received a National Science Foundation grant in July 2013.  

The project, funded for three years, will examine how to create intelligent agents and robots that can interact with humans in open-ended, narrative domains.  It focuses on how intelligent agents and humans can co-create narrative experiences in open-ended story environments, like playing with cars and blocks on a play mat.  

The work will focus on how narrative elements can be "conceptually blended" with other elements during object-based pretend play, such as blending story scripts (e.g. cars going to work blended with Godzilla attacking the city) or blending real and imaginary objects (e.g. using a long, rectangular block as a bridge across a pretend river).  It will also explore how to take turns in object-based pretend play, informing the intelligent agent when and how to make socially acceptable moves. 

You can learn more about the project at http://adam.cc.gatech.edu/?page_id=278