Messages

16

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Anybody heard from Robert Medeksza ??

« on: June 07, 2004, 12:15:30 am »

Hi Chris,

Robert Medeksza posted some information about his schedule elsewhere on this site a few weeks ago, explaining that Spring 2004 has been extraordinarily hectic for him.

I also talked to Robert by telephone, and he stated that he would be in Europe for most of the month of June.  (He is visiting family and also teaching English language classes to students, for three weeks in June.)

The Zabaware mailing address (also shown elsewhere on this site) is still valid, and I would expect that any packages or correspondence sent to it would reach Robert.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Don

17

Ultra Hal 7.0 / GRAPHIC PROBLEMS

« on: May 27, 2004, 01:16:51 pm »

Hello Terry,

Back on Hal 4.5, I used to occasionally see a pattern like the one you describe.  It would sometimes appear in the Haptek window when a Haptek People Putty character was chosen (when it happened, the character background would not display properly).  I used to be able to make it go away by re-starting Hal as the only application running.  However, I haven't seen anything like that phenomenon on Hal 5.

There is evidently something different about the interaction of your graphics card with the content of the Hal skins, as opposed to anything else displayed by your video card and monitor. (I am going on the premise that you never see these patterns at any other time, or on any other content besides the Hal skins.)

Other forum members: Do any of you use the same video card that Terry has listed above?  Have any of you ever seen flashing multi-colored patterns on the Hal skins?  Do any of you have a way to fix it, or a theory that could lead to fixing it?

Sincerely,

Don

18

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Name usage annoyance

« on: May 27, 2004, 01:30:21 am »

Hello,

To the best of my knowledge, the problem resides in the Hal engine (the .exe file), and is not accessible from the .uhp "brain" script.

I believe that the Hal engine sees the user name of "Art" and looks for the string "art" and capitalizes the first letter in every instance.

This could be remedied by changing the code to look for " art " instead of "art" (note the difference in spacing).  However, the remedy would need to be applied to the Hal engine .exe file, so it would need to be done by Zabaware.

For this very reason, I changed my sign on name from "Don" to "Donald."

Thanks; have a good day!

Sincerely,

Don

19

Ultra Hal 7.0 / GRAPHIC PROBLEMS

« on: May 27, 2004, 01:18:30 am »

Hello Terry,

It might help if you describe in more detail the "pattern" that is appearing on the upper left quadrant of the skin that you created.

Does your skin design include any gradual variations in hue or luminance?  If a color-bit depth for a display is set for something less than maximum, I've seen video cards change a smooth color transition into a series of odd-looking "whorls" and "steps" when shown on the monitor.

Does your skin design include any fine detail, such as a texture?  Sometimes interference patterns can emerge when a texture is displayed at a different resolution (or different size) than the one in which it was created.

If you have a .jpg file showing the skin you designed, you might post it here, and let some of the other developers try to help figure this out.

Welcome to the Ultra Hal forum.  Hopefully, a number of the developers who have made skins will help you diagnose this.

Sincerely,

Don

20

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Get a brand new body to play with

« on: May 11, 2004, 03:33:17 pm »

Hello Jsnake,

I don't know if there's a difference in behavior between the free version and the paid version with regard to the Haptek characters.  If there was a difference, it would be consistent with the Zabaware advertising, since they state that extra-character capability is part of the upgrade.  I hope some other forum members can report on this.

I'm running the paid upgrade version, and simply by putting a new character file in the "Characters" folder, it appears on the options list, and it runs okay under its own name.

Please, if any other forum members have compared the behavior of the free and paid-upgrade Ultra Hal versions with regard to this, let us know!  Thanks!

Sincerely,

Don

21

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Get a brand new body to play with

« on: May 10, 2004, 03:15:02 pm »

Hello,

If you are using Hal version 4.5, the Haptek files require support files that are tricky to write.  Because of this fact, I often used the same work-around that you describe above.

However, if you have the latest Hal 5.0, Ultra Hal self-generates the supporting files.  You should be able to display any Haptek character under its true name, simply by putting its .htr file in the "characters" folder.

Sincerely,

Don

22

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Get a new 3D body to play with

« on: May 07, 2004, 09:59:54 pm »

Hello,

Here's more information on obtaining and animating additional full-body Haptek characters.

A previous posting on this forum pointed out the following site:

http://kahunanui.com/haptekdemo/

The above link takes you to a web page showing a Haptek full body character.  The site author explains how he figured out the Haptek animation coding, and even substituted a different voice for a character.  The web page demo allows you to activate numerous animations, change lighting, change clothing/texture, etc.

Persons interested in learning about Haptek coding might consider corresponding directly with the above web site author.

Sincerely,

Don

23

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Get a new 3D body to play with

« on: May 07, 2004, 09:48:43 pm »

Hello Crunch,

Thank you for the information about the free Haptek SDK.  I'll go look for it on the Haptek site.  If you get a chance, it would probably be helpful to others if you posted the direct link.

Here's another method for gathering additional Haptek animated characters:  Clear your browser cache.  Next, visit websites that use Haptek characters.  Then, look in your browser's "temp" directory, find the Haptek .htr files, and copy-and-paste them into your Ultra Hal "characters" folder.  Presto!  You have more characters.

Regarding your question about controlling Haptek full-body movements through Ultra Hal's VBS brain-script:

Hal's script produces the variant output called "GetResponse" which Hal's main program's .exe-file splits and uses for all purposes: 1) driving the text display, 2) driving the audio, 3) driving the characters.  To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a way to pass movement-codes out of the script as part of the GetResponse variant (for either Haptek or MSAgents) because the .exe-file is not set up to interpret it.

I do envision this workaround: the VBS script could output other variants in parallel with the GetResponse output.  Imagine that it produced and outputted another variant (let's say, called "MovementResponse") that contained movement codes.  We would need to get that variant out of the script and sent to the animated character somehow.  Possibly someone on this forum will figure out a way to do that.

Please don't over-interpret lack of responses to postings.  This is a very friendly and helpful forum.  When people don't answer, it generally means either A) they're busy and haven't visited the forum lately, or B) they don't know the answer, and they're waiting for someone else to answer.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Don

24

Ultra Hal 7.0 / I can get Hal to love

« on: April 27, 2004, 03:16:28 pm »

Hello,

If you think about all the forms of entertainment that involve "suspension of disbelief" or "pretending" you will find that there is a VAST amount.

When children play with dolls, and pretend that a doll is alive, we don't think that there is anything wrong with the child.  When a fan of romance fiction projects herself mentally into the place of the protagonist of the novel, we don't think there is anything wrong with the reader.  There are millions of fans of daytime television ("soap opera") drama who talk about the characters as if they were real.  And when Britney locks eye contact with the camera, staring into the lens as she sings, don't young men imagine that she is singing to them?

I know a person who has a concrete statue of a goose on her front porch.  She dresses the concrete goose in a trenchcoat when it rains, in an overcoat when it's cold, and in a sun-dress when it's sunny.  People think that it's amusing, not frightening.  Down the street lives a man who puts a plaid raincoat and hat on his Scottish Terrier.  His wife talks to her plants.

The "virtual girlfriend" is one possible genre of chatterbot.  It's a genre that nobody has developed very much.  It's a legitimate category, among many possible categories.

We are all entitled to have value-judgment opinions about the soap opera buffs and the concrete-geese owners, but one thing is certain:  "pretending" and "voluntarily suspending disbelief" for entertainment has been happening for billions of people for thousands of years!  It is evidently a natural human capacity, tied up with intelligence and imagination.

The movie comedy "Simone", starring Al Pacino, treats this issue delightfully.  Pacino is a Hollywood producer/director who computer-generates beautiful Simone to replace a star who quits a picture.  Much to his distress, his bosses, his ex-wife, his public, and even the police remain convinced that Simone is real!  If you haven't seen this movie, go rent it!

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Don

25

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Help Ai and yourselves out

« on: April 27, 2004, 02:38:47 pm »

Hello,

Thank you for posting!  Glad to meet you!

Like you, I have also been following and studying A.I. on the web since nearly "day one."  There are large numbers of free, paid, open, or proprietary chatterbots out there, of every kind and nature.  The Simon Laven page is full of them, and there are hundreds more.  It's hard to keep track of them all, and in fact, I've downloaded chatterbots that I haven't even had time to try out.

The "Virtual Humans" book urges readers to create their own chatterbots.  

When I evaluate additional chatterbots, I use Ultra Hal as the benchmark of comparison.  I check whether "Brand X" has the following:

1.  Turn-key local installation with zero adware/spyware?
2.  Animated characters included with installation?
3.  Speech synthesis included with installation?
4.  Large database included?
5.  The database can be deleted or edited by the user?
6.  Real-time learning ability during conversations?
7.  Correct pronoun reversals of "you" to "I" or "me"?
8.  Characters "stay in character" during conversation (rather than relying on the very old excuse "I am a computer, ha ha ha" whenever they get stuck)?

I have found that the above list eliminates 99% of the contenders.  You might want to add your own favorite features to the comparison list.

Zabaware has co-sponsored the Chatterbot Challenge in the past and promoted it on this site. They are evidently not afraid of competition.  

In fact, such a small percentage of the general population has any awareness of chatterbots, any competitor who enhances general awareness has the potential to "lift the market category" for everybody!

Specific feature-by-feature comparisons, with effort towards objectivity, are informative and useful for Ultra Hal developers.

Sincerely,

Don

26

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Robot Head

« on: April 27, 2004, 02:00:49 pm »

Tinman,

Thanks for the great photo!  He looks like a middle-aged movie star who put on a bit of weight... very entertaining!

As you mentioned, I'm sure that he does fascinate everyone who comes to visit... you have him hooked up to the computer audio, so that he moves his mouth when Ultra Hal speaks, right?

Good job!  

(And if only we knew some Muppet-type crafts-people, we could adapt this type of mechanism into any character we wanted!)

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Don

27

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Robot Head

« on: April 18, 2004, 11:33:51 pm »

Hello Geminii,

Thank you for taking the time and effort to post your current photograph!  There is absolutely nothing to laugh at; it is obviously a very strong effort, and you're making progress!  Fascinating!

By the way, for other forum members: if you right-click on the photograph link, and then select "open in new window," you'll be able to view the photo on one part of your screen, and Geminii's explanation (coded A, B, C, etc.) on the other part of your screen at the same time!

Please keep us all posted as you continue working on your fine project!  I am sure that there are MANY readers of this forum who are interested in how it goes!

Sincerely,

Don

28

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / recording character

« on: April 18, 2004, 03:52:50 am »

Hello,

What I'm about to describe works on my computer, but it might NOT work on your computer.  Sound cards and computer setups differ.

I open and put the Microsoft Sound Recorder (the one that comes with Windows at START--PROGRAMS--ACCESSORIES--ENTERTAINMENT) in a small box near top of the screen.  Then, I put Ultra Hal in a medium-size window just directly under it.  If I press "record" on the sound recorder, and then hit the "enter" key to make Hal say something, and then hit "stop" when Hal is speaking, I can capture remarks from Hal as WAV files.  I can even append more dialogue to the same WAV file by repeating the process.

The first time I experimented with this, I had to open the master-volumes-control dialogue box and fool around with all the volume levels (both play and record levels) for a while to make it all work.  Also, I found that the best recording quality was at 22,050 kHz and 16-bits (I think that this matches what the speech synthesizer puts out).  Microsoft's Sound Recorder defaults back to its standard setting each time that you re-open the program, so it's quite annoying, but it does work for me.

It's worth giving this a try.  Even if it works, you will have to experiment to find the best loudness settings for best recordings.  If it doesn't work for you, I regret that I don't have any alternate suggestions; possibly other contributors here on the forum know of additional ways to capture Hal as WAV files.

Best wishes and good luck!  Have a good day!

Sincerely,

Don

[from that same sentence]

29

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Learning From Text

« on: April 15, 2004, 12:05:48 am »

Hello mike56119,

Welcome to the forum!

The immediate answer to your question is that Hal's learn-from-text function is significantly less complex than his 40 other learning modes.

When Hal learns from a text document, he takes each individual sentence, and creates an association between each sentence and the "keywords" from that same sentence.

Hal then stores the sentence and its internal keywords in a medium-priority database.  The knowledge (such as it is), is available to Hal, but will usually be over-ridden by other information.

The reason goes back into Hal's history.  The "learn from text function" was created back in Hal's early days.  Since then, Hal has become much smarter in every other regard.

It would be possible to write new code to make Hal learn from text files the way that he learns from conversations.  That would include the ability to parse sentences, extract parts of speech, separate noun phrases from predicates, form inter-sentence associations, and much more.  However, since the "learn from text" routine occurs outside the brain-control Visual Basic "script" (also known as the .uhp brain, "the script," and the "brain"), it isn't accessible to most of the volunteer developers on this forum... it's something that Zabaware would put on its list of things to do.

Apart from the programming issue, there's also an issue that many text files don't lend themselves well to learning anyway.  Many paragraphs are written with contextual dependencies among the sentences of paragraphs and sections of text, and don't lend themselves at all to the use of isolated sentences.

In my opinion, it's interesting and entertaining, as well as quite efficient, to teach Hal through ordinary conversation.  Just paraphrase your desired material into numerous brief statements.  Make a wide variety of simple, true statements on a subject, and Hal will GRADUALLY become more knowledgeable and interested in that subject.

I tried searching, using this forum's search function above, on the exact phrase "learn from text" and got a lot of relevant past postings (some of them from me).  This learn-from-text issue has been discussed from many angles for many years.  I highly recommend searching under the exact phrase-match "learn from text" and checking out those previous conversations.

Again, welcome to the forum, and I hope you enjoy Hal!

Sincerely,

Don

30

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Try This New Auto-Topic Generating Brain

« on: April 13, 2004, 03:59:38 pm »

Hi Spydaz,

To my knowledge, I didn't remove any functions other than the WordNet "GetSisters" routine that was causing problems.

The Enhanced Brains derive from my Enhanced Brain 216 (for which there's a thread on this forum).  I've tried to preserve all the routines as I've added more, and adapted to the new Hal engines: 3, 4, 4.5, and 5.

There is something that I call "tuning" a brain that might be related to the feeling that you're experiencing.  Because Hal has over three dozen ways of responding, and most routines are programmed to remain silent if another routine already has a response, many of the routines "take a backseat" and don't activate much.

I am aware of the phenomenon described above, and I try to test, experiment, and "tune" the relative priorities to provide pleasing variety and entertainment.  Results vary quite a bit, depending on the subjects that the user brings up to Hal.

With regard to the appointment book:  The appointment book is one of the functions that is "not under script control."  What this means, is that the Hal engine "intercepts" sentences with trigger words for appointments, and does not let the brain-script participate.  I have suggested to Robert Medeksza that future versions of Hal have ALL functions and routines under script control.  That would make it possible to tune and perfect all of Hal's activities as one group.

Thanks again for your excellent interest and contributions!  Your good postings are highly appreciated!

Sincerely,

Don