Digital 'Ghosts' To Guide Students On Campus 266
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 ? (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Simon
Holly! holly! holly! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? (Score:5, Funny)
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)
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)
Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? (Score:3, Funny)
It would be really fun... (Score:5, Funny)
"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)
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.
Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Nearly-Headless-Nick or Peeves ? (Score:3, Funny)
Truly, the terrorists have won.
Cool prank idea. (Score:4, Funny)
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)
I bet the freshmen are easy targets...
Re:Cool prank idea. (Score:2)
Re:Cool prank idea. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Cool prank idea. (Score:3, Informative)
It's mentioned here [epilepsyontario.org].
Re:Cool prank idea. (Score:3, Funny)
"In the mean time, Kent, stop playing with yourself ."
Re:Cool prank idea. (Score:3, Funny)
sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? (Score:2, Insightful)
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)
Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:sheesh ka bobs will this help the blind? (Score:3, Insightful)
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)
Re:Delca (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Delca (Score:2)
Re:Delca (Score:3, Interesting)
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)
Re:Well Shit on Me (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Well Shit on Me (Score:3, Funny)
If such a program would have to learn how to survive, that might be one way. But it would be a little bit like dating a vacuum cleaner with throat cancer.
STFU switch? (Score:4, Funny)
hear voices (Score:5, Funny)
Wasn't this done sort of already (Score:5, Informative)
SHODAN (Score:5, Funny)
HK-47 (Score:4, Funny)
"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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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:)
Re:SHODAN (Score:3, Funny)
The best thing about it is that it scares the shit out of everybody.
Downside is that it still scares the shit out of me, too.
The ramifications are endless (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The ramifications are endless (Score:5, Funny)
"Stella nooooooooo
Hopefully these processes aren't threaded.
thats not news (Score:3, Funny)
invisible, but talkative digital agents
I've been dating her for years!
Great. (Score:5, Insightful)
I can barely wait...
Re:Great. (Score:5, Insightful)
Who ya gonna call? (Score:5, Funny)
``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.''
Re:Who ya gonna call? (Score:2)
Re:Who ya gonna call? (Score:3, Funny)
HA! I ain't afraid of no post!
Meddling punks (Score:4, Funny)
Hint. (Score:5, Funny)
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)
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...
I can't wait till some college pranksters hack it (Score:5, Funny)
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... (Score:2, Troll)
Re:First, the human frogger... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:First, the human frogger... (Score:4, Funny)
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)
feelings??? right. (Score:5, Insightful)
"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. (Score:5, Insightful)
natural language processing and complex behaviour is one thing, but to claim that these meat puppets have "Feelings" is just ridiculous.
Re:feelings??? right. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:feelings??? right. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:feelings??? right. (Score:4, Interesting)
Sure, it's weird to say that, but it's technically true :)
No one steps on a church in my town.... (Score:5, Funny)
"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)
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)
What did you catch today, Egon? (Score:5, Funny)
"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)
Re:M$ Word Paperclip anyone? (Score:4, Funny)
That's hardly proprietary. I mean, look at slashdot.
Mod parent funny. (Score:2)
Re:M$ Word Paperclip anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)
The Word Paperclip (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
Re:The Word Paperclip (Score:2, Informative)
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.
This reminds me of a web site..... (Score:2, Funny)
Hell, Slashdot is already full of "ghosts" competing for mod points.
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)
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. (Score:5, Funny)
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...
What's next? (Score:2)
In memory of a real tree [snpp.com]
Agents (Score:3, Funny)
To steal a joke from South Park... (Score:3, Funny)
Shakespeare already did it.
PR nightmare (Score:3, Insightful)
"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
Re:PR nightmare (Score:3, Informative)
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
Re:PR nightmare (Score:2)
Oblig Simpsons (Score:3, Funny)
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)
Excellent. We can look forward to Clippy 2.0! (Score:2)
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)
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
These muggle are getting sued (Score:2)
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)
Will they play nice, or do what ever it takes, to survive?
How do you code competitveness? (or spell it for that matter)Re:Competing agents... (Score:2)
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)
Now I can honestly get another 2 POW points! (Score:2)
For those not old enough to know... (Score:2)
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
Re:Wtf are you talking about? (Score:2)
It's from The Wizard Of Oz film (don't recall if it's in the book).
Help me out here... Eliza with a fancy flash site? (Score:5, Interesting)
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
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?
Re:Help me out here... Eliza with a fancy flash si (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Re:Help me out here... Eliza with a fancy flash si (Score:3, Interesting)
Hrm. (Score:2)
Sounds like Colin from Mona Lisa Overdrive.
At least, I think it was Mona Lisa Overdrive.
Cool! A top-level flash page! (Score:2)
Who ARE these morons? Have they never read a web usability guide?
Denmark, eh? (Score:3, Funny)
Sorry, couldn't resist.
museum guides (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:museum guides (Score:3, Informative)
Mona Lisa Overdrive (Score:3, Interesting)
Once again sci-fi predects the future....
Re:obligatory liberal slant (Score:5, Funny)
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:hmm.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:hmm.. (Score:2)
Re:Big whoop (Score:3, Interesting)