DIG London, Ontario Canada

Dr. Mike Katchabaw
Associate Professor
Computer Science
The University of Western Ontario (Western)

The London game development industry has been very fortunate to have Dr. Mike Katchabaw, a game technologies researcher and educator, in our own backyard at the University of Western Ontario (Western). Mike was an early supporter of building the game development sector in London through DIG London.

Mike has been instrumental in creating the game development program in Western’s computer science department. In addition to teaching game technologies to young people eager to enter the sector, Mike does research into the game world. His game design and technologies research interests include:

Network latency management for real-time networked games
Network support for Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) video games
Artificial intelligence in games
Relationship and reputation modelling for video games
Automated difficulty adjustment in video games
Content analysis for video games
Algorithmic music composition and adaptation for video games
Storytelling support and automation in games
Serious games and applications of game design and technologies to non-entertainment applications
Game studies and curriculum in academia

Mike, a founder of the Digital Recreation, Entertainment, Art and Media (DREAM) Group, has led a team of researchers in developing the Algorithmic Music Evolution Engine (AMEE). This pioneering patent pending automatic music composition technology has potential uses in a variety of new media applications, including computer and video games, musical collaboration, and many others.

The music composition process in AMEE is performed by recombining musical elements from libraries of non copyrighted material and/or creating new elements with pseudo-random number based generating modules. During composition, the operator can choose to dynamically alter the emotional characteristics of the music to fit a desired mood such as happy, sad, or frantic. All of this can be done by an operator having a limited background in music or computer programming, although more expert users could naturally take fuller advantage of what AMEE is capable of.

An enhanced prototype of the AMEE is in development and will include an essential new user interface and will be the key step in this technologies’ reduction-to-practice. While this invention allows the music generated to reflect the many emotions of the user’s experience, the emotion of this experience can be only be described in one way – excited!



	• Home • News • Talent • Research • Incentives • About/Contact	Dr. Mike Katchabaw Associate Professor Computer Science The University of Western Ontario (Western) The London game development industry has been very fortunate to have Dr. Mike Katchabaw, a game technologies researcher and educator, in our own backyard at the University of Western Ontario (Western). Mike was an early supporter of building the game development sector in London through DIG London. Mike has been instrumental in creating the game development program in Western’s computer science department. In addition to teaching game technologies to young people eager to enter the sector, Mike does research into the game world. His game design and technologies research interests include: Network latency management for real-time networked games Network support for Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) video games Artificial intelligence in games Relationship and reputation modelling for video games Automated difficulty adjustment in video games Content analysis for video games Algorithmic music composition and adaptation for video games Storytelling support and automation in games Serious games and applications of game design and technologies to non-entertainment applications Game studies and curriculum in academia Mike, a founder of the Digital Recreation, Entertainment, Art and Media (DREAM) Group, has led a team of researchers in developing the Algorithmic Music Evolution Engine (AMEE). This pioneering patent pending automatic music composition technology has potential uses in a variety of new media applications, including computer and video games, musical collaboration, and many others. The music composition process in AMEE is performed by recombining musical elements from libraries of non copyrighted material and/or creating new elements with pseudo-random number based generating modules. During composition, the operator can choose to dynamically alter the emotional characteristics of the music to fit a desired mood such as happy, sad, or frantic. All of this can be done by an operator having a limited background in music or computer programming, although more expert users could naturally take fuller advantage of what AMEE is capable of. An enhanced prototype of the AMEE is in development and will include an essential new user interface and will be the key step in this technologies’ reduction-to-practice. While this invention allows the music generated to reflect the many emotions of the user’s experience, the emotion of this experience can be only be described in one way – excited!

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