<s>
The	O
NECA	B-General_Concept
Project	I-General_Concept
(	O
Net	B-General_Concept
Environment	I-General_Concept
for	I-General_Concept
Embodied	I-General_Concept
Emotional	I-General_Concept
Conversational	I-General_Concept
Agents	I-General_Concept
)	O
was	O
a	O
research	O
project	O
that	O
focused	O
on	O
multimodal	B-Application
communication	O
with	O
animated	B-Application
agents	I-Application
in	O
a	O
virtual	B-Application
world	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
project	O
focused	O
on	O
communication	O
between	O
animated	B-Application
agents	I-Application
in	O
a	O
virtual	B-Application
world	I-Application
,	O
using	O
characters	O
that	O
exhibit	O
realistic	O
personality	O
traits	O
and	O
natural	O
looking	O
behavior	O
that	O
reflects	O
the	O
emotional	O
features	O
of	O
conversations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
project	O
goal	O
was	O
to	O
combine	O
different	O
research	O
efforts	O
such	O
as	O
situation-based	O
natural	B-General_Concept
language	I-General_Concept
and	O
speech	B-Application
generation	I-Application
,	O
representation	O
of	O
non-verbal	O
expression	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
modeling	O
of	O
emotions	O
and	O
personality	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
underlying	O
research	O
direction	O
of	O
the	O
NECA	B-General_Concept
Project	I-General_Concept
was	O
the	O
development	O
of	O
a	O
computing	O
platform	O
in	O
which	O
animated	O
characters	O
within	O
a	O
virtual	B-Application
world	I-Application
could	O
be	O
capable	O
of	O
realistic	O
behavior	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
second	O
goal	O
was	O
the	O
design	O
of	O
a	O
multi-user	O
web-application	O
called	O
the	O
Socialite	O
,	O
that	O
allowed	O
social	O
"	O
face	O
to	O
face	O
"	O
emotion-based	O
interactions	O
between	O
animated	B-Application
agents	I-Application
on	O
the	O
internet	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
Socialite	O
user	O
could	O
select	O
a	O
set	O
of	O
avatars	B-Application
to	O
interact	O
with	O
and	O
after	O
learning	O
about	O
the	O
user	O
's	O
personal	O
preferences	O
,	O
the	O
avatars	B-Application
helped	O
the	O
user	O
navigate	O
a	O
virtual	B-Application
world	I-Application
and	O
get	O
in	O
touch	O
with	O
other	O
agents	O
and	O
users	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
One	O
of	O
NECA	O
's	O
designs	O
was	O
the	O
Rich	B-Language
Representation	I-Language
Language	I-Language
,	O
specifically	O
designed	O
to	O
facilitate	O
the	O
interaction	O
of	O
two	O
or	O
more	O
animated	B-Application
agents	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
RRL	B-Language
influenced	O
the	O
design	O
of	O
other	O
languages	O
such	O
as	O
the	O
Player	O
Markup	O
Language	O
which	O
extended	O
parts	O
of	O
the	O
design	O
of	O
RRL	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
design	O
of	O
RRL	B-Language
aimed	O
to	O
automatically	O
generate	O
much	O
of	O
the	O
facial	O
animation	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
the	O
skeletal	O
animation	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
content	O
of	O
the	O
conversations	O
.	O
</s>
