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Education Technology

Digital 'Ghosts' To Guide Students On Campus 266

Posted by timothy from the my-school-had-undead-staffers-ahead-of-time dept.
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."
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Digital 'Ghosts' To Guide Students On Campus More

Digital 'Ghosts' To Guide Students On Campus

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  • Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Space cowboy ( 13680 ) * on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:33AM (#8451533) Journal
    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! (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:45AM (#8451652)
      Sorry dave

    • Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ericspinder ( 146776 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:49AM (#8451683) Journal
      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 ? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Carthag ( 643047 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:52AM (#8451719) Homepage

      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 ? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Ralph Wiggam ( 22354 ) * on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @01:31PM (#8453277) Homepage
        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

    • wikipedia (Score:3, Insightful)

      by an_mo ( 175299 )
      ... obviously you have never seen the wikipedia [wikipedia.com]. To put it in somebody elses' words, "with many eyes, all bugs are shallow". This principle does not apply to software only.
    • The beauty about systems like this is that it would take a large number of people deliberately "gaming" the system the same way to screw it up. The ghosts evolve and any deviations along the way are just that. Who knows, maybe your hacking the ghosts would actually add something to the final result.

      • It would be really fun... (Score:5, Funny)

        by wolenczak ( 517857 ) <paco@cot e r a .org> on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:26AM (#8452027) Homepage
        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"

    • Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SatanicPuppy ( 611928 ) <Satanicpuppy.gmail@com> on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:13AM (#8451911) Journal
      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.
    • Yes, it's only you. You are the only person clever enough to come up with any way to "game" the "system". Good show!
    • [note to US authorities - this is a joke, and I have no intention of committing any crimes (cyber- or otherwise) when visiting the USA]

      Truly, the terrorists have won.

  • Cool prank idea. (Score:4, Funny)

    by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:34AM (#8451539) Homepage Journal

    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 (Score:4, Insightful)

      by lockholm ( 703003 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:04AM (#8451835)
      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...

    • I'd like to laugh, but I have NO idea what this references. Can you help me out?

      • Re:Cool prank idea. (Score:4, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @12:01PM (#8452366)
        Smelling "burnt toast" is a symptom of some psychiatric diseases.
    • Victim: Did you hear that?

      "In the mean time, Kent, stop playing with yourself ."

  • sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by CreamOfWheat ( 593775 ) * on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:34AM (#8451544)
    ..helping steer blind/disabled students around campus?
    • the blind people I know are more able to get around campus than some of the sighted folk.

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

      • Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? (Score:5, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:55AM (#8452320)
        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? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by ryanwright ( 450832 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @01:58PM (#8453611)
        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.
        • 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.

          Based on your post, it seems that the same can be said of Un-P.C. weenies. Do you really think that the grandparent post had such bad intentions?

          You know, this whole concept of "P.C." has really run its course. All we have now are two sides. Both of them complain that the other side is putting them down for no reason, both insist on the right to speak their mind, and

  • Delca (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mknewman ( 557587 ) *
    Very impressive text to speech technology, but I didn't see much in the way of a demo on the site given.

    • Re:Delca (Score:4, Informative)

      by Carthag ( 643047 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:59AM (#8451791) Homepage
      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).
    • Yeah, the speech synth really interests me. Currently we are running critical and informational events through a combination of mbrola and festival, which is quite good but that voice is really nice!

    • Re:Delca (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ryanwright ( 450832 )
      >> Very impressive text to speech technology

      Agreed; I'm very interested to know how I can get my hands on the same TTS engine & voices they're using. Also would love to know how they interfaced voice recognition & response with ALICE. It would be wonderful to wake up in the morning and ask basic questions, such as "What is the weather like today?", and get an appropriate response regardless of how the question was formed ("how's the weather", "get me the weather report", etc). Would be even

  • Well Shit on Me (Score:5, Funny)

    by illuminata ( 668963 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:35AM (#8451556) Journal
    College kids can breathe easily. For once, it's not the acid talking.

  • hear voices (Score:5, Funny)

    by millahtime ( 710421 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:36AM (#8451559) Homepage Journal
    Is this a shrinks delight??? A campus full of people hearing voices.

  • Wasn't this done sort of already (Score:5, Informative)

    by nberardi ( 199555 ) * on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:36AM (#8451563) Homepage
    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 (Score:5, Funny)

    by plams ( 744927 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:37AM (#8451572) Homepage
    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 (Score:4, Funny)

      by MattRog ( 527508 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:42AM (#8452194)
      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."

  • The ramifications are endless (Score:5, Funny)

    by Loco3KGT ( 141999 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:39AM (#8451583)
    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.

  • thats not news (Score:3, Funny)

    by theMerovingian ( 722983 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:39AM (#8451584) Journal

    invisible, but talkative digital agents

    I've been dating her for years!

  • Great. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:39AM (#8451586)
    Get ready for the Marketing Ghosts assaulting you on every street corner...

    I can barely wait...

  • Who ya gonna call? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gulik ( 179693 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:39AM (#8451590)
    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 (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:39AM (#8451592)
    I would have got away with my tenure position and crappy directions it if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

  • Hint. (Score:5, Funny)

    by hookedup ( 630460 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:40AM (#8451601)
    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.

  • Hmm... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Mindcry ( 596198 )
    and if the Disembodied Location-specific Conversational Agents disembody students, do they get free lunch?

    anyways, sounds kinda cool... though i bet it'd be a bit hard to get used to... unless you already hear voices, in which case...
  • 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...
  • First, the human frogger on "Seinfeld". Now, they are turning college campuses into Pac-Man? "Inky, Blinky, and Clyde: coming to a college near you!"

  • feelings??? right. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blue_adept ( 40915 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:43AM (#8451621)
    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.

  • No one steps on a church in my town.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:46AM (#8451662)
    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 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Smidge204 ( 605297 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:47AM (#8451667) Journal
    <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 (Score:5, Funny)

    by bigattichouse ( 527527 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:48AM (#8451670) Homepage
    "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? (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:50AM (#8451695)
    "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? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DarkkOne ( 741046 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:50AM (#8451698) Homepage Journal
    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.

  • The Word Paperclip (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Geancanach ( 652302 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:52AM (#8451722)
    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?

    • Is that damn thing going to start talking now?

      Not without a clever hack. Clippy is a Microsoft Agent, and could easily use any text-to-speech engine that works with SAPI4, except for two things: (1) the Clippy .acs is specifically flagged not talk, so you can't make it talk even in your own app, (2) Office sets text-only output even if you reg-hack it to use a talking agent like Merlin or Genie.

  • The ghosts are to compete amongst themselves for privileges...

    Hell, Slashdot is already full of "ghosts" competing for mod points.

    ...such as better vocabulary or the ability to clone themselves.

    Of course, it would be rediculus to expect the Slashdot "ghosts" to loose their limited vocabularies.

    And none of us really expect to ever have the ability, let alone the opportunity, to reproduce.

  • I'm sorry. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Soko ( 17987 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:53AM (#8451731) Homepage
    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
  • Holographic trees?

    In memory of a real tree [snpp.com]

  • Agents (Score:3, Funny)

    by electric_penguin ( 166747 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:55AM (#8451746)
    I'm all for it. As long as he looks and sounds like Orlando Jones.

  • To steal a joke from South Park... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tax Boy ( 75507 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:55AM (#8451750)
    Students getting advice from ghosts in Denmark?

    Shakespeare already did it.

  • PR nightmare (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ssbe ( 614884 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:05AM (#8451837)
    This technology mixing AI and artificial voices seems really cool, but comments like

    "Ghost are almost living beings like you and I"

    need to go if they want the public behind it. No matter how complex the AI is or how real the voices seem, they aren't the same as humans. And while they are at it change the name of the AI beings. The word ghost already has a very defined meaning ... and it's not a good one. Remember what happened with the American car "nova" or "no go" in Spanish? This really could turn into a PR nightmare for these guys. Which would stink because the technology definitely looks interesting.

    • Re:PR nightmare (Score:3, Informative)

      by stratjakt ( 596332 )
      Remember what happened with the American car "nova" or "no go" in Spanish?

      A myth, an urban legend. [snopes.com]

      To summarize the snopes entry..

      First of all, you wouldn't say "no va" in spanish, you'd say "no machina", "no functiona" or "no trabaja" (doesnt work). "Don't go" is slang from ignorant english folks, it doesn't translate. Apologies for my bad spanish.

      Secondly, it's like saying an english speaker wouldn't buy a dinette set under the brand name "Notable" because it says "no table". The legend insinuates
    • That's the thing, though - people need to have a reference in real life if you're going to explain abstract concepts to them. Telling a layperson that this software gives them a "ghost" to talk to/ask stuff off, they'll know exactly what you mean - something/someone who's not physically present, yet floats around you telling you stuff. I think you don't give people enough credit when it comes to naming things. If calling them "ghosts" is a bad idea, how about the success of Dirt Devil? People can see pa

  • Oblig Simpsons (Score:3, Funny)

    by da3dAlus ( 20553 ) <dustin.grau@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:05AM (#8451838) Homepage Journal
    From the Simpsons Smile-time Variety Hour spinoff:
    Marge: "Homer, why are you hiding?"
    Homer: "You said today we were having a special g-g-ghost today!"
    Marge: "No, I said we were having a special GUEST. Mr. Tim Conway!"
    Homer: "What's a Tim Conway?"
    Tim Conway: "Oh, about a hundred-seventy pounds."

  • Wow (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ElGnomo ( 612336 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:06AM (#8451847)
    This has got to be one of the coolest things I've seen on slashdot. Not only is text to speech interfaced with most of the services of a fully wifi college ( the elevators, printers, music are accesible by ghosts ), but they've given each ghost a unique personality and history to boost! almost makes me want to learn danish and transfer to Copenhagen!
  • Why is it researchers always seem to think that systems that think for themselves in a "human type" way is a Good Thing. Time and time again
    they have proved to be rubbish. If people want human like interaction they generally prefer another human and they expect machines to be
    logical, to the point and do exactly what they're instructed to do. I'm sure this is a very interesting project from a research point of view but I
    seriously question its true usefulness.

  • Too much (Score:2, Insightful)

    by mod_critical ( 699118 )

    This seems to me to be going quite a bit overboard...

    If the purpose is to provide a useful resource to the people who will engage these ghosts, then I see far to much work going into the AI. A helpful computer contains what you want to know and provides an effecient interface for extracting the information.

    Not that this project is not of great interest to me from a research standpoint, but perhaps the most useful faceless computer interface wouldn't be one that is trying to gain popularity and l

  • 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.

    This just in: Darl McBride and David Boies will team up with JK Rowling to sue IT University for using "Harry Potter Intellectual Property".

    They are asking for "injunctive relief against IT University's further use or copying of any part of JK Rowling's copyrighted "Hogwarts" and "Harry Potter" materials and also [requesting]

  • Competing agents... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CarrionBird ( 589738 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:15AM (#8451930) Journal
    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)
    • That's what I was wondering as well - will they lie to you if their 'survival' is at stake? Humans do lots of not-so-nice things to each other, and behave quite differently when backed against a wall.

      It would seem to me that coding a survival instinct could be counter-productive at times.

      Are these ghosts capable of...murder? (cue spooky music)

  • print1 ("Do you believe in ghosts? [yn] ");
    if (ynq1 () == 'y') {
    powpts += 2;
    print2 ("I do! I do! I do believe in ghosts!");
    morewait ();
    clearmsg ();
    }
    omega sources, char.cc:554
    • In case you are too spoiled by the flashy graphics of today's games to know this for yourself:
      omega is a rogue-like text-mode monster-slashing spell-casting countryside-trodding quest-seeking game from the end of the last century. It is, arguably, the best of its kind. Where nethack or moria concentrate on monster slashing, omega instead has a much better storyline and interesting quests. Much humor can be found throughout the game, and the character generation sequence is worth reading for its entertainmen

  • Help me out here... Eliza with a fancy flash site? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Featureless ( 599963 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:24AM (#8452006) Journal
    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?
    • I really find this attitude disappointing, especially since its here on Slashdot. Although everything you say is technically correct, I'm not sure I understand what is the point of dissing an experimental project -- because it is experimental.

      This is not a commercial product. Clippy is. And here is the big difference.

      An experimental project like this is all about moving to the next step. The step where it becomes a reality. If you're dissing this project now, because a CS faculty is conducting a research
    • Right on. As I just wrote in a previous reply, the underlying technology involved in the interaction appears to be a mix of ELIZA and an Infocom-like adventure game text recognition engine using keywords, like what we wrote as kids in BASIC on our home computers back in the 80s. All the glitz on top, and the tie-in to other systems, appear to be the only real meat of the system. That is, of course, interesting. But the technology is certainly nothing terribly impressive, unless they've hidden the good stuff

  • Sounds like Colin from Mona Lisa Overdrive.

    At least, I think it was Mona Lisa Overdrive.

  • Cool! A top-level flash page! No text navigation!

    Who ARE these morons? Have they never read a web usability guide?

  • Denmark, eh? (Score:3, Funny)

    by jpellino ( 202698 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @11:54AM (#8452305)
    So the first batch of ghosts will start with "Daddy" to be followed by Yorick, Ophelia, Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guilderstern, Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius and finally... Hamlet?

    Sorry, couldn't resist.

  • museum guides (Score:5, Interesting)

    by peter303 ( 12292 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @12:32PM (#8452693)
    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:museum guides (Score:3, Informative)

      by Bish.dk ( 547663 )
      Also in use in the exhibition of architecture by Daniel Liebeskind at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Extremely neat. You approach a screen showing a movie, and your headphones synchronize perfectly to the film. Works very well.

  • Mona Lisa Overdrive (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mattnl ( 602476 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @12:36PM (#8452726) Homepage
    This reminds me of the "guide" that the little girl has in William Gibson's "Mona Lisa Overdrive" .. it was a character that accompanied her everywhere to help her find her way around London.. If they could package these ghosts in portable devices that people could carry it would be essentially the same thing.

    Once again sci-fi predects the future....

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