Patent 6,285,380: Method and system for scripting interactive animated actors. The NY Times article about it is titled “Video Heroines With Personality“. Co-inventor Kenneth Perlin won a technical achievement Oscar for his texturing work on Tron. This patent covers a system where a game’s designer sets parameters for a character, but the character itself decides how to act within those guidelines. The character’s internal workings are “making many discrete choices that are all in keeping with her personality but are nonetheless quirky and unpredictable enough to create the illusion that she is making interesting decisions on her own.” This technique also speeds up the creation of animation since the animator doesn’t have to specifically animate lots of non-repetitive motions. However, there’s also a more practical application. Co-author Athomas Goldberg is CTO of Improv Technologies where they are using this technology for “supplying software infrastructure for peer-to-peer computer networks.” I’m guessing the “actors” in this case are the different peers on the networks.