Digital 'Ghosts' To Guide Students On Campus

Hambone.dk writes "The students at Copenhagen's new IT University will soon be guided by invisible, but talkative digital agents, known as ghosts or Disembodied Location-specific Conversational Agents. The ghosts are to compete amongst themselves for privileges such as better vocabulary or the ability to clone themselves. Ignored ghosts can die out completely. This project is a lot more serious than it sounds at face value - several papers have been published already."

Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ?

[Space cowboy (13680)]

What's to stop these ghosts being maliciously "trained" to give the wrong answer... I remember a teacher at college (Mr Tittershill), who was routinely used in a joke on freshers (report to Mr Boobershill at the senior common room, NOW! ...)

Is it only me who first thinks of "how to game the system" when presented with a new technology ? Perhaps I should have been a hacker :-)) [note to US authorities - this is a joke, and I have no intention of committing any crimes (cyber- or otherwise) when visiting the USA]

Simon

Holly! holly! holly!

[by Anonymous Coward]

Sorry dave

Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ?

[ericspinder (146776)]

Is it only me who first thinks of "how to game the system" when presented with a new technology ?

NO, thank god. Your question is serious and important. It's sad that in today's world people feel like they need disclaimers(*) all the time. Any homeowner or business manager should look at his property like a thief, and not be appolgitic when he suggests that to others.

* - Note that I am not trying to offend anyone, but am just trying to get my point across.

Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ?

[skintigh2 (456496)]

Did you just give a disclaimer about your hatred of disclaimers?

Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ?

[Carthag (643047)]

Oh, I can imagine a lot of things. Here at the department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen [www.diku.dk] there is a running prank called pyxling. It's basically making anagrams of the signs (which have those little lego-like letter bricks).

I'd give examples, but they're in Danish, so no fun for the majority of you. Use your imagination :)

Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ?

[Ralph Wiggam (22354)]

Rearranging the Soup of the Day sign at diners never gets old. There was a big bookstore across the street from my high school. They only built the sign 10 or 12 feet off the ground. I used to stand on top of my car and change the sign all the time. Having 2000 of your peers greeted in the morning with a sign that reads "Eat More Cock" was great.

Hint for young pranksters: Steal a page from the movie Sneakers. Recreate the target sign using Scrabble tiles. Rearrange the letters in private. Standing in front of a sign trying to think of a clever phrase will get you busted.

-B

Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ?

[SatanicPuppy (611928)]

Well, if it's a true learning system, nothing, of course. But if you've got competition, then either you'll need a large body of people to make sure the badly trained ghost stays fresh and popular, or it will get ignored and "die".

For this sort of project I think you actually NEED people to try and abuse the system. If it's well designed, it'll help it get smarter. If it's poorly designed, then, at least, they'll be able to tell.

Mind you, I think the whole think will fail for lack of computing power, though I think it sounds cool.

It would be really fun...

[wolenczak (517857)]

Being a comp sci. student at a large university, it would be really interesting to try gaming the system and have it make jokes or funny things to the new students. And believe me, all that bunch of technogeeks will have serious fun with the ghosts.

"hi, i'm are your ghost guardian and will assist you while you get familiar with the campus. Cheerleader's Stripshow at 7pm in womens changing room, just make sure to reserve your seat in advance at the administration. Having problems with your teachers? Dr. Berger just loves the patriots (as well as entrance tickets), Mrs. Allison favours basketball players, and Dr. Palmer is into... ehemmm.. umm... well, you'll find"

Cool prank idea.

[grub (11606)]

Burn some toast at this university and make people think they're going mad!

Victim: Did you hear that?
Prankster: Hear what?
Victim: Voices... ah forget it. Say... do you smell that?
Prankster: Smell what?
Victim: Burnt toa... uh forget it...

ghosts play pranks too

[lockholm (703003)]

Ghosts use every means possible to get the users attention and affection but their modus operandi varies in accordance with the preferred segment of users they try to reach. Some rely mostly on entertainment e.g. by becoming popular as respected opponents in the local computer game, other use the assistive interaction as their preferred metier. Some perform practical jokes, some are 'jack-ass'ing', others rely on more innocent ways of entertainment (like the singing sisters street performing at second floor) while a few are responsible polite and earn their ITU's[positive feedback] from maximizing the standard of their services.

I bet the freshmen are easy targets...

Re:Cool prank idea.

[by Anonymous Coward]

Smelling "burnt toast" is a symptom of some psychiatric diseases.

sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind?

[CreamOfWheat (593775)]

..helping steer blind/disabled students around campus?

Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind?

[by Anonymous Coward]

hile your heart is in the right place...you understimate and insult through your ignorance a very capable sector of our society.

Obviously you've never found yourself drunk at a party where the only available designated driver is blind.

Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind?

[ryanwright (450832)]

While your heart is in the right place...you understimate and insult through your ignorance a very capable sector of our society.

I chose to respond rather than mod you down:

Quit your P.C. whining. Nobody is insulted unless they choose to be insulted, in which case the problem lies with them. As you yourself said, his heart is in the right place, so your response is unnecessary.

You really can have this one of two ways:

1. You can accept that people are ignorant about a disability and choose to appreciate their help, however unnecessary it may be.

2. You can choose to be insulted and become a P.C. weenie, bitching and moaning and berating people who have nothing but good intentions. End result, that person will never again offer their assistance to a person with a disability because you've made them feel ashamed of themselves for doing the right thing.

I suggest number one. It makes you look like less of an ass and doesn't discourage people. Maybe the blind people you know are very capable who don't want any help, but there are others who aren't as capable and actually appreciate the assistance. Don't leave them out in the cold by turning away those who would seek to help them through your P.C. nonsense.

Well Shit on Me

[illuminata (668963)]

College kids can breathe easily. For once, it's not the acid talking.

STFU switch?

[AndroidCat (229562)]

"Hi, I see that you're trying to locate a dealer on campus!"

hear voices

[millahtime (710421)]

Is this a shrinks delight??? A campus full of people hearing voices.

Wasn't this done sort of already

[nberardi (199555)]

Wasn't this sort of already done with the GotDotNet Terrarium Project [windowsforms.net], it's not as intelligent but it sounds like the same idea.

SHODAN

[plams (744927)]

When that female voice started speaking in that flash thing I almost thought it would say, "Look at you Hacker... Pathetic creature of meat and bone.."

HK-47

[MattRog (527508)]

I would rather HK-47 would chat it up:
"Hello meatbag... err.. master."

"It's just that... you just have all these squishy parts, master. Not to mention all the water - how the constant sloshing doesn't drive you mad I don't know."

Re:SHODAN

[plams (744927)]

Heh. But seriously, they have a lot in common - listen to these [delca.itu.dk] samples of background ambience to accompany the voice. Here's a bunch of nerds that actually understands how ambient sound can change the atmosphere completely.

For instance, in System Shock - the first time you hear SHODAN speak, she's just giving you a standard greeting ("Welcome back to Citadel Station.."). But all the time there's this evil drone in the background that starts low but keeps intensifying. SHODAN makes no threats, nor states anything evil - but that ambience, the drone, tells you that something's definitely wrong, and you should be very affraid:)

The ramifications are endless

[Loco3KGT (141999)]

Could you imagine this in your house? Your wife could be out grocery shopping but you'd still hear her voice yelling "DID YOU PUT THE LID DOWN?" upon leaving the bathroom.

Re:The ramifications are endless

[petabyte (238821)]

"HARCOURT FENTON MUDD!!, WHAT DID I tell you ..."

"Stella nooooooooo ....."

Hopefully these processes aren't threaded.

thats not news

[theMerovingian (722983)]

invisible, but talkative digital agents

I've been dating her for years!

Great.

[by Anonymous Coward]

Get ready for the Marketing Ghosts assaulting you on every street corner...

I can barely wait...

Re:Great.

[lionchild (581331)]

Get ready for the Marketing Ghosts assaulting you on every street corner... There's an upside to that: If you ignore them enough, they die off...unlike current marketing firms.

Who ya gonna call?

[Gulik (179693)]

And, of course, to augment meager stipends, PhD students can get into the business of helping freshmen figure out how to get the ghosts to leave them the Hell alone:

``Sir, what you had there is what we refer to as a Disembodied Location-specific Conversational Agent, or a Class 5 Full-roaming AI. Really nasty one, too.''

Meddling punks

[by Anonymous Coward]

I would have got away with my tenure position and crappy directions it if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

Hint.

[hookedup (630460)]

Turn down your speakers before clicking the second link.

This is slashdot, so I'm assuming you've already come this far down the page and have yet to click the link.

I can't wait till some college pranksters hack it

[Junior J. Junior III (192702)]

Just like in Real Genius...

Prankster: "This is God talking. I want you to... blah blah blah... Oh, and by the way: stop masturbating."

Student: It is God...

feelings??? right.

[blue_adept (40915)]

from the website project pages...

"the ghosts are not only able to talk and think like human beings they are also emotional and sensitive spirits. the ghosts have feelings and highly complex sets of behaviors"

this is very misleading. natural language processing and complex behaviour is one thing, but to claim that these programs have "Feelings" is just ridiculous.

Re:feelings??? right.

[thelasttemptation (703311)]

To be honest, the same can be said about you...

natural language processing and complex behaviour is one thing, but to claim that these meat puppets have "Feelings" is just ridiculous.

Re:feelings??? right.

[Carthag (643047)]

That's just a temporary chemical imbalance. It'll pass. :)

Re:feelings??? right.

[dave420 (699308)]

If something's programmed/conditioned to respond to certain stimulii, and those stimulii reflect something people recognise as emotional triggers, technically it can "feel emotions". After all, that's just what we do.

Sure, it's weird to say that, but it's technically true :)

No one steps on a church in my town....

[AtariAmarok (451306)]

They'll pull the plug on this project as soon as a giant marshmallow stomps the campus chapel.

"I find her interesting because
she's my client and she sleeps above her covers- FOUR FEET above her covers"

Polytechnic NY

[Smidge204 (605297)]

<obscure in-joke>"Makes for happy Moose"</obscure in-joke>

Sorry, but this reminds me of the hauntings of my college... though I've never heard of any students being helped by them...

I think the problem here is they are not passive enough, at least that I can tell. The last thing anybody wants is an emotional, talking version of Clippy talking to you as you're walkingdown the hallway...

"Hi! You look like you're lost! Do you want directions?"

"No. Go away."

"I'm sorry, I don't know where that is."

Man, Douglas Adams must be spinning in his grave...
=Smidge=

Ahh, something like Harry Potter's marauders map

[bigattichouse (527527)]

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good" would be the verbal queue to summon the ghosts that tell you where you can score beer (if underage), change security codes, hook up with other evil doers, and basically build a nice treatment for a little summer hacker movie.

What did you catch today, Egon?

[AtariAmarok (451306)]

"What did we catch today, Egon?"

"Well, let's check the traps: 3 repeating phantasms, 18 roaming terminal vapors, and 6 semitranslucent sessile spectres. Oh. I went back to Columbia University and picked up some of those new invisible, but talkative digital agents"

M$ Word Paperclip anyone?

[DarkkOne (741046)]

I mean, it doesn't have an AI (Microsoft instead opting to go with their proprietary Artificial Stupidity) but doesn't it somewhat seem like a prototype for this idea. I mean, an artificial helper that guides you around software isn't too different from one that guides you around a physical location. But in all seriousness, instead of location specific ones, wouldn't you rather have a personal ghost? You decide it's appearance on your PDA/Wearable Computer/Whatever, you adjust its personality via programming or learning capabilities. You get to the campus, and it wirelessly logs onto a local server, gets a layout, and comparing your schedule develops a path to where you need to be, and on demand (or wim, if so programmed) gives you directions? Sure, location specific ones are a neat idea, but personal ones seem like they'd be alot more useful.

Re:M$ Word Paperclip anyone?

[System.out.println() (755533)]

Microsoft instead opting to go with their proprietary Artificial Stupidity

That's hardly proprietary. I mean, look at slashdot.

The Word Paperclip

[Geancanach (652302)]

From the paper:

1. Ghosts are mostly invisible or only vaguely visually manifested 2. Ghosts are often bound to a specific location which often has a very special relation to the ghost 3. Ghost owe their twilight status to some unfinished business and they are therefore active and striving 4. Ghosts only appear when called upon or if they feel an urge to manifest themselves

These ghosts sound a lot like the microsoft word paperclip. Is that damn thing going to start talking now?

I'm sorry.

[Soko (17987)]

I just can't accept this at all.

I mean, a Clippy for college campuses, disembodied from MS Office?

It looks like you're drunk and lost. Would you:

- like directions back to the dorm
- like directions to the nearest park bench
- like directions to the nearest sorority party
- like another beer
or
- like directions to Cowboy Neal's house?

Say "More" for more options, "OK" to choose one or "Go Away" and I'll leave you alone. Until I see you peeing in a bush, when I get to be helpful again!

Sorry, Fuck Off isn't one of the options. Here they are again.

It looks like you're drunk and lost...

Soko

Re:I'm sorry.

[AndroidCat (229562)]

If it detects that you're drunk, it'll probably switch to Zork just to mess with you:

Welcome to Dungeon.
This version created 30-AUG-90.
You are in an open field west of a big white house with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here...

Agents

[electric_penguin (166747)]

I'm all for it. As long as he looks and sounds like Orlando Jones.

Competing agents...

[CarrionBird (589738)]

It will be very interesting to see how these "ghosts" compete with each other for resources, as the plan suggests.

Will they play nice, or do what ever it takes, to survive?

How do you code competitveness? (or spell it for that matter)

Help me out here... Eliza with a fancy flash site?

[Featureless (599963)]

They have a good web designer and have clearly purchased the top of the line speech synthesizer (which has recorded canned audio clips narrating a few snippets of text for them)... they claim "all the voices you encounter on this site are generated by computers." Congratulations. Kraftwerk has been doing this trick since the 80's. Musical stings to provide ambience for different "ghost activities..." Little PHPbb posts about each ghost's personality that sounds like something cut from Starship Titanic's promotional materials...

The papers on their site that I've skimmed were extremely "light." They were at least suggestive of interesting ideas (albeit ones that have a nothing to do with AI and everything to do with human-computer interaction... "ambience," new ideas for interfaces, which seem promising or at least interesting). Their "main paper" is a 404.

So they're not exactly leading with the great breakthrough that makes their ghosts possible. Can anyone more familiar with the project comment? It looks like a lot of fancy dressing on the same kind of waste-of-time vanilla AI project (yet-another-unambitious-stab-at-natural-language- processing) that's been going on in countless CS departments around the world for decades...

What's the real meat of this project? Have they really accomplished anything of interest from an AI or user interface perspective? Or is their main accomplishment an unusually skillful PR coup for themselves?

museum guides

[peter303 (12292)]

Recent museum guides like at the Dallas Noeller Sculpture Museum use mp3 players with RFID readers. The mp3 gives random access sound loops, so you aren't tied to a sequential audio tape. The RFID tags on art works give you the location index.

Re:obligatory liberal slant

[OECD (639690)]

will the ghosts specifically tell perspective women students that they are victims of a male dominated society?

Nah, they got teachers for that. The ghosts will tell them that those jeans really do make them look fat.

Re:Delca

[Carthag (643047)]

You can click the round bubbly icons to get text read to you. It sounds like it's prerecorded, though, as the text read and the text displayed is subtly different (there's a split infinitive in the sound that's fixed in the text, for example).

Re:First, the human frogger...

[Discoflamingo13 (90009)]

When I was in college, we used to say Gauntlet-esque phrases all the time -

Use caffeine to stay awake later! (Walking past vending machines)
Cafeteria food takes 50 health! (Taco Pizza . . . again)
White freshman is about to die! (Kegger)