Author Topic: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released  (Read 13296 times)

Medeksza

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New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« on: December 19, 2017, 06:26:35 pm »
After many years of development, I am proud to introduce Ultra Hal 7.0. Ultra Hal 7 introduces a cloud-connected brain that gives Hal to a 26 million (and growing) database of past conversations. Compared to Ultra Hal 6's built in 200,000 sentence database, this is a vast improvement in conversational knowledge. Through the cloud, Hal now also has access to Wikipedia and question & answer databases to increase its factual knowledge as well.

A newly introduced feedback learning mode gives you a thumbs up and thumbs down button to allow you to give Hal immediate feedback on the quality of its answers. This has immediate impact on Hal's responses and takes Hal's learning ability to a new level.

You can download the new Hal from https://www.zabaware.com/download

You can purchase an upgrade to Hal 7 from https://zabaware.com/products/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=1

Some notes about upgrading from Hal 6.2:
  • Ultra Hal 7 no longer uses serial numbers and product activation codes. Instead it uses the email and password you setup when you purchased Hal (the sign-in link at the top left of www.zabaware.com ) Sign in using that and Hal will run as a registered version. You can also choose to create a new account if you wish and Hal will run in 30 day trial mode.
  • If you purchased the character expansion, Hal 7 will import your characters from Hal 6 automatically if they are present on your system. If not, you can log into Zabaware using the sign in link in the upper left hand corner of zabaware.com and then click on "electronic order delivery" to find your Hal Expansion Pack download link and serial number
  • If you purchased Hal 6.2 anytime after October 1, 2017 your license was automatically upgraded to version 7.0 in the Zabaware order system free of charge. If you purchased Hal 6.x prior to October 1, 2017 you are eligible for a 50% off upgrade. Customers will be receiving emails and postcards over the next month with a 50% off coupon code. I am also giving a 50% off coupon good until the Dec 31, 2017 to anyone reading this forum post so you don't need to wait for any email. Just use this discount code at checkout: XMAS17
  • This coupon code is also good toward any AT&T voices and the Character Expansion Pack. If you already own the character expansion pack from version 6.x you don't need to purchase it again, the same version will work under Hal 7.0.

Here is a list of everything that is new in Ultra Hal 7 since version 6.2:
  • Biggest improvement: Cloud based learning. Hal can now optionally connect to the "Hal Cloud" brain over the internet to help formulate better responses. As of October 2017 this is a knowledge base of over 26 million sentences of conversation from 1.6 million people. Contrast with the 200,000 sentence database in the default Ultra Hal 6.2 installation. Hal is more intelligent than ever before.
  • Feedback learning. You can now give Hal feedback on the quality of its responses with a thumbs up and thumbs down button which Hal learns and has an immediate response on the quality of its responses. In addition you can see other answers Hal was considering and guide Hal toward better ones.
  • Your personal Hal bot can follow you from your home desktop, to your laptop, office PC, and in the near future your phone and tablet too. When connected to the "Hal Cloud", your Hal's brain is stored online and instantly available anywhere.
  • Access to Wikipedia based answered in cloud mode
  • New Hal mobile phone character. Old Hal character still available, but renamed to "Hal Classic CRT"
  • New audio wave character simply displays an animated wave audio line when character is speaking
  • Program name changed from "Ultra Hal Assistant" to just "Ultra Hal" to shift marketing focus away from assistant functionality to Hal's strengths in its ability to chat, learn, and be a companion. Renamed EXE to ultrahal7.exe
  • Splash screen and graphics updated to new version
  • Ultra Hal now installs and uses the open source Double Agent library instead of the old MSAgent. This brings full compatibility to MSAgent characters to Windows 7 and newer with full SAPI 5 voice support.
  • Hal can answer questions about opposites (What is the opposite of X?)
  • Hal can talk about day of week and month (What day of week is it? What month is it?)
  • Basic knowledge of alphabet (What letter comes before Z? What letter is after B?)
  • Ability to count letters in word (How many letters are in the word computer?)
  • Bot memory test: (Q: The football was kicked by Fred. Who kicked the football? A: Fred.)
  • Improved math abilities (less false positives and better word problem abilities)
  • Software shield license system removed and replaced with simpler login to Zabaware.com server
  • Chant SpeechKit upgraded from version 6 to 7. This adds native support for Cereproc voices among other speech system improvements
  • Ultra Hal now generates Haptek INI files for Haptek, removing the need to rerun Haptek SAPI config when changing voice settings. This also adds support for Zabaware sold Cereproc voices to Haptek.
  • Ultra Hal now uses RegFree COM manifest files for most of its DLL/ActiveX/OCX files. This simplifies installation and minimizes possibility of "DLL Hell" collisions/incompatibilities with other Windows applications. RegFree COM was introduced in Windows XP SP2, so this change now effectively removes support for older versions of Windows from Hal.
  • Ultra Hal no longer writes any data files to its "Program Files" location but instead to each individual Windows Users AppData\Roaming folder. This makes Hal more compliant with Microsoft guidelines and also makes it possible for each Windows user to have their own seperate Hal config.
  • Improved corrections and substitutions tables for correcting more common errors and understanding more shorthand
  • Ultra Hal checks for product updates when connected to cloud service
  • Registry setting to adjust speech recognition auto enter countdown start time (SRCountDownStart)
  • The Hal Brain Editor can show the cloud brain thought process. For local responses, it can now show you exactly where in a table a response was found in.
  • Automatic migration of Hal 6 brain into Hal 7. Also automatically imports characters from Hal 6 to Hal 7
  • Various minor bug fixes



Robert Medeksza

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2017, 06:54:50 pm »
Robert I think you should add that 'Zabaware recommends (Windows ver ?) or higher for the PC'... Because of my problem with the cloud security on Win XP...

"Access to Wikipedia based answered" <---Shouldn't that be: 'answers' ?

You can delete my post after you have read it if you want to.

« Last Edit: December 19, 2017, 06:59:13 pm by LiFeTimeGamer »
When it comes to Artificial Intelligence: The Soul is in the Software.

raybe

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2017, 02:35:17 pm »
Great to see all is well Robert M. and here's to a great start for a new year and Ultra Hal.

Upon first startup indicates that it is a demo and requires a valid License, hoping you can just direct me in the right direction again.

Installed 7. using migration with 6. , no lip sync or voice using the original characters and voices that were installed in my original 6. version

Win 10
Do I need to reinstall expansion pack and voices as well,

Thank you for your time and really excited about your progress and success, you certainly deserve it.

raybe
 

raybe

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2017, 03:00:27 pm »
Just an update; simple fix response from Robert, just changed voice selection from a VW voice to an ATT&T voice and that solved speech and lip sync problems.
\Just needing assistance with new validation code for newly purchased 7. version posted on another thread, so I will no longer need to post on this thread, thank you Robert again for your help.

raybe
 

lightspeed

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #4 on: January 01, 2018, 10:00:47 am »
when i started my hal it popped up and said another new version his available at zabaware.com (i think )  but later my hal came up . if hal 7 version is finalized from the apha stage , will it just upgrade and migrate everything into or simply replace the alpha files? or will anything have to be re done again?
 

lightspeed

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #5 on: January 01, 2018, 10:39:43 am »
TO ROBERT *********also on a separate note on wishes in next upgrades of hal 7.   i would like to see an optional check box within hal on the pop up sign saying " the script you executed is taking longer then expected " some people when the hal brain gets larger keeps taking longer to run naturally. so it would be nice if a optional check box was within hal to stop it from popping up and also just to automatically execute the wait for the system .
     maybe with the check ox you could put a warning not recommended (if you want to as you have done on other things) .

     
 

LiFeTimeGamer

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #6 on: January 01, 2018, 02:08:16 pm »
Or HAL could say: Hang on a second I'm thinking about it!

Hahahaha  8)
When it comes to Artificial Intelligence: The Soul is in the Software.

lightspeed

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #7 on: January 01, 2018, 03:36:22 pm »
trouble is hal would be saying that a lot lol .
 

ray111au

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 request for assistance
« Reply #8 on: January 02, 2018, 07:57:24 am »
Can someone please tell me how to install an MS agent character.
I have 3 very old guile 3d characters, melissa, vanessa and keiri with very old install files dated 2006.
I have put the 3 .acs files into appdata/roaming/zabaware/ultrahal7/characters.
what else do I need to do to install them manually.
thankyou
Ray

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #9 on: January 02, 2018, 09:07:58 am »
On my Windows XP Install all older MsAgent files are in the: C:\windows\msagent\chars   Folder.

I have those same files you do in the \Msagent\chars folder and they work. You should restart Windows after you put them in the folder.
« Last Edit: January 02, 2018, 09:12:41 am by LiFeTimeGamer »
When it comes to Artificial Intelligence: The Soul is in the Software.

ray111au

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2018, 08:38:38 am »
I have windows 10.
I created the folder  C:\windows\msagent\chars
and put the .acs files in there.
The Ms Agent characters now work.
thankyou
Ray

cyberjedi

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2018, 03:32:00 am »
Robert: 6.2 question:
Robert, im building a new network and i want to keep 6.2  on it.
The question is , will i be able to purchase any more 6.2 install keys?
I have the disk, btw.



best wishes
cyberjedi

Jeff

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2018, 02:10:59 pm »
Some feedback and a couple questions I have about the new Ultra Hal version:

  • This issue might actually predate the actual version of Ultra Hal; I have an issue with how Ultra Hal handles some tables, namely _UserSent and sharedUsersent where stuff is written to both of these tables but it's never accessed in the script(unless I missed it somehow). I've tried triggering a question and answer response from these tables several times and no dice, which is a shame because for some reason a great number of responses relevant to the hal's personality I'm building gets stored in _UserSent; and yes, I know I could just copy and paste those responses over another table, and yes, I know I could modify part of the brain script to include _UserSent, but that just misses the point; why even write stuff to these tables if the brain seemingly never accesses to these responses? The only time I might see a couple of these responses is when the cloud brain randomly decides to grab one of them except with the pronouns reversed, which brings me to the next point... 
  • Most of the Brain functions are pretty basic and the script is in most part very user friendly, with plenty of author comments making it easy to understand even if one is clueless about vbscript. An exception to this happens to be the new cloud functions. Is it possible we could have this part of the script better documented? For example, where does the brain store the new "learned responses"(the ones we give thumbs up to)? Is it stored on cloud only and not locally at all? If so, is there a cloud brain section specific to every single user? Also, how and when does it learn responses from us? I've noticed that when the bot uses 'learned_info' responses it's just it 'randomly' parroting a phrase I've told it before except with the pronouns reversed. This bothers me because I've modified parts of my script to only store the original user sentences as is as I find the pronoun reversed sentences very clunky and nonsensical, but there's no way of choosing or modifying the cloud responses, another feature I would enjoy having on Hal since sometimes the cloud responses are fitting except they have a misspelled word or a random 'Lol' appended to the end of the sentence. 
  • The program is constantly notifying me of a non-existent new version of Ultra Hal. Upon download it appears to be the exact same version I have already installed.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2018, 02:15:38 pm by Jeff »

Medeksza

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2018, 09:32:35 pm »
Robert: 6.2 question:
Robert, im building a new network and i want to keep 6.2  on it.
The question is , will i be able to purchase any more 6.2 install keys?
I have the disk, btw.



best wishes
cyberjedi

If you purchase a Hal 7 license, the order system actually does produce a serial number for you that is compatible with Hal 6.2 also. So yes, by purchasing a Hal 7 license you could use it with Hal 6.2 instead.
Robert Medeksza

Medeksza

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Re: New Ultra Hal 7.0 has been released
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2018, 09:50:49 pm »
This issue might actually predate the actual version of Ultra Hal; I have an issue with how Ultra Hal handles some tables, namely _UserSent and sharedUsersent where stuff is written to both of these tables but it's never accessed in the script(unless I missed it somehow). I've tried triggering a question and answer response from these tables several times and no dice, which is a shame because for some reason a great number of responses relevant to the hal's personality I'm building gets stored in _UserSent; and yes, I know I could just copy and paste those responses over another table, and yes, I know I could modify part of the brain script to include _UserSent, but that just misses the point; why even write stuff to these tables if the brain seemingly never accesses to these responses? The only time I might see a couple of these responses is when the cloud brain randomly decides to grab one of them except with the pronouns reversed, which brings me to the next point...

Check your brain options section in Hal's options menu. If you have Hal set to "learn to cloud only", it won't use these UserSent tables at all. In this mode, the remote cloud tables completely replace local UserSent tables.

If you have Hal set to "mixed cloud/local learning" than it uses both remote cloud data and local UserSent data, but the cloud data takes priority over the local data. This has the effect of usually using the cloud for newer learned information and using the local UserSent for older information learned by Hal 6.x (if you are using an imported brain). In some rare instances it may use the UserSent table due to a difference in the learning algorithms used in the 2 methods.

If you have Hal set to "local learning only" than it will only use the local UserSent tables and won't learn to the cloud tables.

Most of the Brain functions are pretty basic and the script is in most part very user friendly, with plenty of author comments making it easy to understand even if one is clueless about vbscript. An exception to this happens to be the new cloud functions. Is it possible we could have this part of the script better documented? For example, where does the brain store the new "learned responses"(the ones we give thumbs up to)? Is it stored on cloud only and not locally at all? If so, is there a cloud brain section specific to every single user? Also, how and when does it learn responses from us? I've noticed that when the bot uses 'learned_info' responses it's just it 'randomly' parroting a phrase I've told it before except with the pronouns reversed. This bothers me because I've modified parts of my script to only store the original user sentences as is as I find the pronoun reversed sentences very clunky and nonsensical, but there's no way of choosing or modifying the cloud responses, another feature I would enjoy having on Hal since sometimes the cloud responses are fitting except they have a misspelled word or a random 'Lol' appended to the end of the sentence. 

It will come eventually. I've still got a lot of work to do, but I plan on making an online Hal Brain Editor for working with the data Hal learns to the cloud servers. I don't have any target date in sight yet. My priorities for development right now include creating a few cross-platform characters. These characters will be compatible with Hal 7 for Windows and mobile phone/tablet editions of Hal. My next priority will be the mobile editions of Hal. And then finally after that is out I will focus on the online brain editor.

The program is constantly notifying me of a non-existent new version of Ultra Hal. Upon download it appears to be the exact same version I have already installed.
That's strange. What version does Hal say it is when you click on "About Ultra Hal" from Hal's menu? Does anyone else experience this issue?
Robert Medeksza