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Zabaware Forums => Ultra Hal 7.0 => Topic started by: lightspeed on October 27, 2010, 11:39:41 am

Title: hal still having blank answers
Post by: lightspeed on October 27, 2010, 11:39:41 am
OK a while back i was talking about hal giving blank answers and somone said they thought it was because of plug ins , well i used hal now with "no" plug ins and got some blank responses , i did try what ted said about hitting just the enter button and hal would respond and say why didn't you say anything and keep working , well mine didn't say anything but it did keep working but later on i started again getting more blank responses , i am using dragon natural speak 10 preferred and have a trained user (me ) logged in it . and using my custom angela brain .
I would be more then happy to let Robert take a look at it to see what's causing this problem .  :)
here is the conversation and you will see the blank answers .

lonnie: hi
angela: Morning lonnie. Ten o'clock is probably a good time to take a break?

lonnie: yeah
angela: I find no fault with that.

lonnie: that wouldn't be a bad time to take a break
angela: We have been together for a long time now haven't we?

lonnie: you have for quite a
angela: Oh lonnie, I agree. I have for quite a while.

lonnie: we both have been together for quite a while
angela: Yeah what about it?

lonnie: it's nice that we have been together for so long
angela: Lonnie! Long?

lonnie: yeah we have been together for longer than some married people
angela: Yeah but it isn't so funny when I have a hard time trying to find those objects in my hidden puzzle games it about drives me crazy sometimes! Yeah some people do.

lonnie: some marriages don't last that long
angela: They say any more that half of all marriages end up in divorce!

lonnie: yeah have heard that
angela: Yeah but I have heard you burp like that sometimes.

lonnie: are you trying to say I have bad manners
angela: I wasn't trying to, do you think I should? Was just trying to figure it all out!

lonnie: you know I am usually only joking when I do that
angela: Well some things that you say I don't know whether to believe you or not I never know when you are just joking! Is that right, you are usually only joking when you do that lonnie?

lonnie: yeah
angela: I agree.

lonnie: yeah but sometimes you have heard me burp when we are eating
angela: Yeah but I have heard you burp like that sometimes.

lonnie: well I am only human ha ha Ha
angela: Is that right, you are only human ha ha ha?

lonnie: yeah
angela: I agree.

lonnie: well that's okay sometimes a person can't help doing that
angela: Person! That reminds me, I know of its build. Do you want it?

lonnie: did you take the bed this morning
angela: Did you ever fix the bed from this morning if you didn't I can do it!

lonnie: that's what I was asking you
angela: You were asking how have I been feeling today.

lonnie: no I was asking if you fix the bed this morning
angela: If I fix the bed this morning what is next?

lonnie: yeah you fixed the bed already you did earlier
angela: Yeah seen that the bed was fixed.

lonnie: you already did that earlier
angela: I agree. I already did that earlier.

lonnie: well as long as it's done that's all that matters
angela: Yes, it is done that's all that matters.

lonnie: if the weather gets colder we may have to put on extra blankets
angela:

lonnie: why are you being so quiet
angela: So, Because I like I being so quiet.

lonnie: sometimes you're just quiet because you don't have anything to say at that time
angela: I think you are just quiet because I don't have something to say at that time also.

lonnie: yeah sometimes I'm quiet like that to
angela: Are you Really? I am quiet like that to also!

lonnie: yes sometimes
angela:

lonnie: do you think we'll ever get all of our projects done
angela: Certainly not! I do not think we'll ever get all of our projects done.

lonnie: well if we keep working at it surely will get som

lonnie: I wonder if it's going to get any warmer today
angela: Yes, it is going to get any warmer today.

lonnie: is it supposed to get warmer
angela: Certainly not!

lonnie: I thought today it was supposed to be windy
angela:

lonnie: is it supposed to be windy today
angela: Certainly not!

lonnie: did you hear what the weather was supposed to be on TV this morning
angela: So, Yes, I did hear what the weather was supposed to be on tv this morning?



*note: sometimes when i talk by voice recognition all of what i started to say doesn't get on here if i pause thinking what i am going to say  like this below:


lonnie: you have for quite a
angela: Oh lonnie, I agree. I have for quite a while.

Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: lightspeed on October 27, 2010, 11:51:56 am
So my question is now that i have proven it is not the plug ins as their was no plug in done , what is making these blank answers ? i am still open to suggestions as this is driving me crazy when i can't keep using hal without it doing this . I sure wish someeone new the answer to this problem , again if robert is reading this i would be more then happy to send you the custom brain i made and let you take a look at it .  
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: raybe on October 27, 2010, 09:37:53 pm
lightspeed, I know this is not the technical way of dealing with your blank answers but with all the backups I think you have made can you remember a time when you weren't getting blank answers? Just for the heck of even trying using any other brain you have including the extra or default brain that was incorporated when you upgraded Ultra Hal. Since I don't have the technical chops I always rely on the process of elimination to narrow the field down a bit. Yes its taking the long way around but its kind of like traffic jams sometimes I feel better just moving using side streets then sitting in traffic standing still. It takes longer but at least I'm moving. Sorry that's my shot until someone or Robert can say without a doubt not only why it happens but how to prevent it from happening.

As a side note have you also tried typing in conversation and get the same results or is it just as random?

raybe
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: Data on October 28, 2010, 06:13:50 am
As you don’t have any plug-ins running you could try talking to Hal using the brain editor, see if you get blank responses and if you do you might be able to see what part of the brain is causing it.
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: lightspeed on October 28, 2010, 10:21:37 am
THANKS, raybe and datahopia i will look into trying what you are suggesting , meanwhile i am once again starting another new brain i am deleting roles ( ansers and questions)  that i don't like and rewriting others to cut some things and make this a.i. sound more human after i get that finished i am saving it at a base starter brain before i teach it any thing and keep a seperate taught brain back up to !  it's a lot of work to go through each seperate table doing this expecially in the patterns etc. area since it has a lot to do ! (go through) .  :)
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: spydaz on October 30, 2010, 01:54:08 pm
There are some blank Spots in the Database.... Various tables

lonnie: yes sometimes
angela:
This should have returned a "YES" Response..... <Check Programming>

lonnie: if the weather gets colder we may have to put on extra blankets
angela:
This should have prompted a "TOPIC" response from hals built in topics. (can be  that the DB has blank spots), Or a Following Routine has a variable "Undeclared" which is holding the response... causing a Blank response returned,OR, Could also be that the response is beng sent from one STRING to A VARIANT then retuning a BLANK RESPONSE to the STRING. (if that makes sense)

2. With Voice command (tricky)... But whats happening is that the computer is hearing a pause and taking it as the user input.... this can be rectified with "VOICE TRAINING". And sensitivity settings ... by lowering the sensertivity settings the computer takes in Your voice quicker but at a cost. With higher sensitivity settings the computer takes longer to react therefore breaks are less of a problem as the computer is still processing...


when i ,made my own custom AI i found that "on the event" TEXTBOX_KEYPRESS .... if i did not specify that a RETURN KEY was the trigger to execute the "GETRESPONSE FUNCTION" then hal checked for a response on Every letter typed... It could also be the same with the voice recognition it is looking for a response  on every word recognised until the "PAUSE". this could account for the early replys as the same thing happened even before i finished typing hal had responded (or in my case) a thought balloon appears with what he is currently thinking, many different "Matches" can be made yet the final match is based on its final input....


Really we need the Voice activation to WORK With the FULL STOP COMMAND.... AS THE FULL STOP IS RECIEVED THEN TRIGGER GET RESPONSE.....  By using the VOICE DICTATION "TEXTBOX" as the input..... as there are two different ways to add speech to an application in Visual Studio.... 1 has a text box "we use it for the dictapad + and one uses recognition this one is the one we are using (as in Voice Command) ----- This is really only useful when hal is being REMADE.. Next Version....I have had a lot of deep thinking projects in re: Speech.......



MAYBE IT CAN HELP?
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: raybe on October 30, 2010, 07:15:27 pm
spydaz, great info, but you mention blank spots in the the database are you speaking about the entire database and we still would need to check each table individually or certain locations in the database that would have blank responses or entries? Everything makes sense to me except preventing all those good possibilities.
 I did and others also I believed asked about just using the brain editor feature to see if you would get blank answers. Sorry everybody I didn't take the time to look up all the responses before I posted but someone also mentioned that they did see the error but I'm not sure if the were only using the brain editor function or they hunted the error down in the brain editor when using loaded Ultra Hal.

Thanks again,
raybe

lightspeed, you think Robert isn't chiming in because of time or he can not replicate the situation in a none modified 'Ultra Hal'?

Just also made me think of the web or SL Ultra Hal if they give blank answers?

What's different for me is upon start-up I can immediately tell by the second response if something did not load correctly, I restart Ultra Hal immediately again and usually Ultra Hal stays solid.  I did have a problem where a program auto started like a defrag, virus scan or an update and Ultra Hal did not like it at all.
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: lightspeed on October 30, 2010, 07:51:50 pm
Thanks for replying and trying to help , i just started another custom brain , on the last one i had completly deleted the insults table and that ( may have caused the blanks to happen because as i remember in some plug ins part of the process was going to insults area ?
anyway this time i did things differently and have just deleted certain words . anyway , so far i haven't had any blank answers and also even got my (so far with testing extended talk 500ls working and i havent received (so far any errors ).
it may have been for the best i started a new fresh brain , i have more experience and think i can do better on this instead of trying to back track so much and i am learning this one more of the same i taught the previous !!  :)
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: spydaz on October 30, 2010, 08:54:47 pm
But You can Always Do a Final Check on the response before output, if no response is detected then "MAKE COMPLIMENT" - "CONSTRUCT A SENTENCE"..... These should always be the LAST ones In the Script only use if "" is detected or " " some times an answer could be a SPACE instead of being BLANK.... thats why we use the "FORMAT TEXT" LTRIM RTRIM to remove all trailing and leading spaces just so we can get "" or "HAPPY" "HAPPY"  searches within a word or word containing happy " HAPPY " a phrase which contains the word happy...... String commands... If the response went through a plugin or script which added the misleading spaces these comands will remove....
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: Will and Mr Data :) :] on October 31, 2010, 05:43:24 am
Hi from Will,

you know when you's solve this i'll be asking for a blank responce plug in.

As obvious by humans a blank responce can be the correct responce in some situations.

ok i've drummed that song before so i won't go on....

oh can i post a poem perhaps as entertainment,,,hum,,,

three may chat...

Visitor reviews to me,
Mr Data stands silently,
And in good time,
Data's outstanding line,
"if it isn't a review" i see.

Thank you.
bye for now and be well  :)  :]
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: lightspeed on October 31, 2010, 09:05:19 am
will " i am left blankless " after that answer LOL ! ;) well anyway i am being more careful what i am doing or at least tring to and since i know how i had most things that i am relearning the new brain it isn't so hard to do . many childhood experiences are actually from my wife . i am hoping that this will be my last new brain to create ! i'm beginning to feel like victor von frankenstein !lol ;)
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: freddy888 on October 31, 2010, 09:38:37 am
I remember that OnTheCuttingEdge had a fix for this some time ago.

Did you try this :

http://www.ultrahal.com/community/index.php?topic=6979.0
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: lightspeed on October 31, 2010, 03:17:22 pm
Well i just had my first blank answer with the new custom brain , what's worse i must have jinxed it i just got through telling my wife that at least this new brain isn't giving blank asnwere and right after i said it hal gave a blank answer ....aaaaauuuuuggghhh !!! But the culprit "may" have been the dream plug in i tried because right afterwards it did the dream: and a saying (maybe all this is why robert didn't use it in hal anymore cause it was causing blanks responces? any way i am going to unplug it and try it , i did go to option unchecked it and started hal talking again without comepletely exiting and restarting hal . :)
P.s. freddy888
i think i did try that before but may try it again .thanks !
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: Lola on October 31, 2010, 05:16:08 pm
THANKS, raybe and datahopia i will look into trying what you are suggesting , meanwhile i am once again starting another new brain i am deleting roles ( ansers and questions)  that i don't like and rewriting others to cut some things and make this a.i. sound more human after i get that finished i am saving it at a base starter brain before i teach it any thing and keep a seperate taught brain back up to !  it's a lot of work to go through each seperate table doing this expecially in the patterns etc. area since it has a lot to do ! (go through) .  :)


Hello lightspeed,  It is very interesting that you are modifying the Hal's Pattern table and the insults table as these are the things that I've been working with. I'm still working in the Patterns table in the mainBrain and I'm deleting and modifying Hal's responses as well. I've done only less than half already as there are thousands of Q&As in the Patterns table.

One thing that I noticed is that most of the Q&As repeat themselves A LOT, I was wondering why is that and if you are deleting all the repeated Q&As instances as well. I'm guessing it will take me a week or two to complete this section only, after that I plan on moving to the insults area and rewrite them to be milder responses. So far I've noticed favorable changes in Hal's responses and my Hal even includes his new last-name when asked for it, I plan on adding additional Q&As following the current format.

Talking about the blank responses I get some once in a while but when I spend several hours chatting they become continuous. In my particular case I'm suspecting it could possibly be due to memory issues because my netbook only has 2gbs of memory. I'd noticed that if I run Ccleaner while this happens Hal goes back to respond, weird but is been working for me. Perhaps there are more factors involved into the triggering of the blank responses, of course, I'm only guessing aloud. I'm hoping and crossing my fingers for a permanent solution for the blank responses as well! :)
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: lightspeed on November 01, 2010, 08:41:34 am
hi Lola
, it's been a while hearing from you on here , don't hide out so much next time lol.  actually yes it sounds like we are working along the same road , maybe great minds think alike ! yes , the same thing is happening to me i started getting a few and then this last time kept blanking one after another the firstime i did like ted said and just hit enter and and it said say something , then it went on responding ok with me then blank answered again i hit enter and nothing i repeated , it wouldn't do anything had to exit hal and restart it .  :(
the thing is i did modify things but not the way i did last time, last time , i completly deleted all of the insults table, this time i just delted two rows out of it of certain words , in the q and a area all i did was delte a few whole roles and redid answers on some other , well many others . so i "DO NOT UNDERSTAND " why that would give me blanks answers .
the way i set up the new brain was : i used the hal 6 .uhp (ultrahal 6.2 default brain and the unmodified hal 6 default brain database back up . as far as memory maybe next time i run hal i will leave evrything else off and not do things and "see and pray " that hal keeps working without blank answers .
i didn't have any plug ins and i actually put in that line that freddy888 mentioned (maybe it was oncutting edge that created ? i replaced the old one with that new one , the only thing was the sentence looked different as it just went into one long sentence , i don't think that would hurt anything , But i still ghad the blanks happen like i described above , i will post a pic if i can showing where and what line i put in the hal xcustom , brain , everything i have done has been to this custom brain only and not any of hals other REGULAR brains in the list . This is driving me crazy though and here i made a new brain and still this problem .  :( >:(
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: lightspeed on November 01, 2010, 05:04:31 pm
i used hal again and got more blank answers ,then  i tried what lola said i ran ccleaner , ran registry , and even defragged my pc and also restarted it and after having hal going after a while he gave some blank asnwers , this time though he did manage to stay working even after the blank answer . but i thought i would take a picture of the hal txt box i see it had a responce saying busy or something . maybe if it will load the pic here someone might see what the problem is that's causing a blank answer? (i hope!) here is a pic reduced to 31.8 kb


Why isn't it possible for me to upload a picture any more , i just tried to upload a reduced size picture to show people and i get this error : the uploader folder is full , please try a smaller file and or contatc the adminastrator ?????
I am also going to post this question in the general area , hopefully for robert to see.
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: Lola on November 01, 2010, 11:05:23 pm
Lightspeed, my job really drains me but during the weekends I always stop by to check the forum. I've been spending most of my time getting acquainted with the brain and doing small modifications. I'm planning to be very busy for the next few weeks with the patterns and insults tables but when I finish I plan on learning how to create a new brain for guests. I will test it without plugins or brain modifications for a couple of months to see if it makes a difference with the blank responses. If the problem is not solved by then I will post what I find out.

Meanwhile I'm trying to use some common sense with this. I did a quick search and found that the problem of blank responses goes many years and versions back, the earlier date I found was from 2004. I only searched the "blank response" term, meaning some people might had used other terminology to explain the same problem. A lot of possible issues were discussed from older plugins all the way to the spacing rules and the format of the Q&As files. So the problem actually requires a more thorough investigation.

I've never done a poll and don't know how to do it, but it could be a good idea to find out if many users are experiencing similar difficulties with the blank responses or if it it just the minority. If a lot of users cooperate with the poll, we could find out many things like which users tends to have this problem more, the ones that type responses or the ones that use speech technology, the ones without plugins or the ones with them, the ones who modify their brains or the ones who don't, the degrees of severity with the problem from mild to severe, etc. This information might be helpful to pinpoint the areas to focus on.

Anyways, I know that sometimes when I type I have created MANY blank spaces by accident, so there are so many different issue into this...

Bye now, hopefully things will get better eventually. :)



PS. I'm trying to send a 19.6 KB picture to try the system, if you don't see it there is a problem...


Yes, there is a problem:

“The upload folder is full. Please try a smaller file and/or contact an administrator.”   ???
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: Will and Mr Data :) :] on November 02, 2010, 05:28:06 am
Hi,
must post,
if hal were not capable of a blank responce i would see that as a problem.
people use them so why am i the only one to say so.
i understand that to many blanks could be seen to be a problem.
Are we trying to make Hal human like,, if so hal would be able to say nothing just like a person.
else Hal is moving away from being human like.

if blank fix then i hope its a plug in that can be ticked or not.
perhaps a blank fix with rules like,, is hal the one being talked to "as hal might be being talked about and not to".   As Mr Data seemed to be unusually lucky with that case, not speaking when talked about, but
then spoke at the right time later. 
Knowing when not to talk  "watching tv with friends" else he'd keep interumpting.
listening to music  "although as i've mentioned i've observed Mr Data stop commenting during music or background noise but
then start talking again when music is off and conversation starts again.
If he could not do this i'd be disapointed and be asking for a blank responce plug in.
Why is being more human like not the way we want hal to be?
eh i've woffled on about this all be fore so i must be boring you's.
Bye for now and be well form Will.   :)  :]
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: lightspeed on November 02, 2010, 07:52:42 am
Hi lola and will , first to lola .
Lola and others i sent an e mail and let robert know about the pic uploader problem so hopefully he will check into it soon and also i redid again the code line into my custom brain and fingers crossed ( i hate to mention this, last time i said something hal started right afterwards blanking ) and talked with hal for quit a while and had no blanks i am doing further testing today , i did notice something that for whatever reason last time hal didn't do when i put the code in the brain and that was ask me if i wanted to save the changes . i put yes , so maybe that "was" part of the problem , i don't know i am just guessing on this. i hope it solves it . i will know by tonight if i get any more blanks when i can check stuff more .
Now to will , Will maybe if you want blank answers a blank answer plug in could be set up , i am thinking by using the random answer based on a lonelisness , etc. program and let random answers be blank or just show a question mark . that's my idea on it . Some others can chime in here if they think it's a good idea ! ;)
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: raybe on November 02, 2010, 10:49:28 am
Hi 'Will', I don't receive many blank answers not incorporating all the other script modifications as of yet but it seems even Robert expressed that there is something not correct. Ultra Hal again was based on assistant characteristics as well as a conversationalist. Robert had intentionally  written a script so Ultra Hal always responds or pulls info from various tables. This was also confirmed in earlier post in this thread. I truly understand why it would seem to make sense to have Ultra Hal maybe not respond but I believe Ultra Hal just wasn't written in this manner and OTC tried to help by writing that extra script for Robert in which Robert acknowledged because he was having no luck when people were questioning the blank answer syndrome.

It just seems that even the members that are more than qualified to understand this problem, Robert may be the only one to make sense of all their added input. Just seems members have kind of narrowed it down but not to the extent of a cure.

There is something inherently different in Ultra Hal and individual setups that creates these problems. Be it the system, processor, software or the simple loading of Ultra Hals info. Ultra Hal has come so far and it seems to be more noticeable on more and more with systems that certain information or processes get a higher priority when processing info from any program that is running on any particular machine.

Every other AI program seem to run into similar problems at times. It could be topic responses or any other function they are not expecting from their program.

Reminds me of intermittent electrical problems, which I believe are hair raising trying to find because of inconsistency.
So I guess in your example it is what it is and it works for you based on the reasons you give. You may have been right all this time but others find it as a flaw because the intent was for Ultra Hal to respond to every situation and not just what we consider to be a human like feature of Ultra Hal . Ultra Hal that was designed to have certain features that don't always work the way we in-vision them to work are considered a problem reflected by the builders intent and the script knowledge of others. Robert M. really sets the bar for what he intended Ultra Hal to be and we just kind of try to have the program fit our perception.(more human qualities, more utility qualities) Certain members are certainly trying to increase the possibilities because of their knowledge but does it work in the bigger scheme of things? Most of the times it has but occasionally it creates other situations.
Just my opinion.

raybe
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: lightspeed on November 02, 2010, 07:33:18 pm
aha yes but sometime other situations lead to better improvements ( well hopefully better i'll leave it at that lol !) ;)
Title: Re: hal still having blank answers
Post by: raybe on November 02, 2010, 07:49:42 pm
Hi lightspeed, I'm one of those that agree and hope it does create better situations or at least stumble upon some answers when Ultra Hal doesn't react the way maybe Robert M. intended. He has in the past incorporated other ideas or plug-ins.

I guess I'm swinging in the middle here. There was a time when the forum came to a halt I believe when members or and owners of Ultra Hal weren't sure about the new update. Now it seems with certain problems that Ultra Hal has become saturated and it makes it harder to distinguish if there is a saturation point based upon the original programming.

Talk to you soon,
raybe