DARPA Builds Smarter Version of Microsoft's Clippy 140
holy_calamity writes "Microsoft's animated paperclip may be long dead, but a $150m DARPA project has resurrected the idea of a virtual assistant. AI researchers from more than 60 institutions worked on the project entitled CALO. CALO is designed to help ease the bureaucratic burden of the military. A consumer spinoff, Siri, is coming to the iPhone later this year. It responds to conversational voice commands to take over multi-step tasks like choosing and booking restaurants or cabs."
Re:Is it time yet... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:So has anyone asked the question... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a quintessential military approach to a problem:
"We're spending way too much time and money on [stupid thing]."
"Well, we have a new process that will allow us to do [stupid thing] much faster!"
"Great!"
Examples abound. A perfect one is the primary mode of communication on ships is radio, even though the networks (i.e. chat) are far faster and more reliable. We'll spend hours troubleshooting radios over chat in order to pass voice messages over radio. Then we'll chat again to confirm that the recipient actually received the radio message properly.
Re:So has anyone asked the question... (Score:4, Interesting)
This is a quintessential military approach to a problem:
*snip*
Examples abound. A perfect one is the primary mode of communication on ships is radio, even though the networks (i.e. chat) are far faster and more reliable. We'll spend hours troubleshooting radios over chat in order to pass voice messages over radio. Then we'll chat again to confirm that the recipient actually received the radio message properly.
This would be funny if it weren't for the fact that it's true (and I've dealt with it as well :-/ )
Re:Smart = Unpredictable (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Is it time yet... (Score:3, Interesting)
This is true, and it's the reason why low interface latency is so important. No real world hand tool acts with a delay, especially not with an inconsistent delay. Every time there's a perceptible delay in the interface it breaks the fast brain link.
This is one reason why 60Hz refresh displays are unacceptable even for general desktop use. A faster display gives you a tighter feedback loop, making it easier to perceive the computer as part of your own body. This is very noticeable with mouse control, and I suspect most people who complain about the inadequacies of mouse control have never used a mouse with both fast input and fast output sampling rates. It's also the reason why any kind of graphics buffering to trade latency for throughput or image quality is unacceptable.
A good interface isn't something you see, it's the feeling of transparency.