Building Interactive Virtual Humans for Training Environments - очень интересная статья, про разработку и использование виртуальных персов (и виртуальных же Персий) для тренировки американских солдат в Ираке [pdf, 16pp]. Отличная команда (David Traum - один из гуру в разработке диалоговых систем, да и у остальных там нихилые био), и это не попсовая заметка в Wired, а хорошая академическая работа (несмотря на то, что с картинками).
"The ultimate goal is to create fully realistic interactive characters that can remember you, know what training you require and contain a vast array of knowledge, tactics and training procedures.
Although this goal might be decades away from achieving, the near terms goal will be achieved by integrating many component technologies. The project seeks to create functioning virtual human that will advance the state of the art in immersive training by facilitating face-to-face interactions between users and synthetic autonomous characters.
Creating virtual humans that are believable in their appearance, language and behavior, responsive to the user and simulation, and interpretable by the trainee will ultimately create compelling training environments that will train and transform the next generation Warfighter for novel interpersonal engagements..."