Messages

31

Speech Technology / hal and crystal

« on: December 24, 2009, 07:57:04 am »

Unfortunately, I think the "X" means "not available". Hal only seems to recognize a few lip sync msagents and I don't know why. I would love to know so I could make my agent lip sync ready.

32

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Animations and MSAgents

« on: December 24, 2009, 06:11:23 am »

Yes, there is. You can write scripts for any animation which will either look for incoming words or check Hal's responses for words and then do the action including move around the page etc.

I'll try to write up an example script later unless I find one of the old ones to repost.

33

General Discussion / Re-installation

« on: December 22, 2009, 11:11:19 pm »

I was not talking about your post, Bill.

I was careful to obfuscate the name of the poster I was talking about so that it didn't stimulate the bot reaction, but perhaps I munged it a little too much.

Sorry for the confusion.

34

Ultra Hal 7.0 / New MSAgent

« on: December 22, 2009, 06:47:59 pm »

As far as I can tell, the palette needs to be the same color in every index location for every image frame (unless you like color shifting). The first indexed color is usually the background color and I've been using hot green with no ill effect, but any unused color will work.

There is a button for changing which indexed color you want to use for transparency. It goes by index number, not shade, so it has to be the same number in every frame. But you can change it to something other than "0" if you want.

35

Ultra Hal 7.0 / New MSAgent

« on: December 22, 2009, 10:44:50 am »

quote:Originally posted by ramccoid

quote:Besides, I really don't like the Haptek stuff I see

You're right, it's so limited and unsupported by it's creators.

Well, truthfully, all I can go by is what I see here. I know you can script movements but most of them seem blocky and they can't leave their box. And nothing compares to what you can do with cartoons as far as additional effects.

Maybe it's time for a fuller integration of AI and Graphics, so that Hal can tell the actor to move up to the exit button and push it or walk over to the Start Menu and click on the program you wanted, or display it's own window that has the information you asked for.

Maybe when Robert embeds Double Agent we will get some of that.
http://www.zabaware.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6815

36

Ultra Hal 7.0 / New MSAgent

« on: December 21, 2009, 11:30:46 am »

Robert posted a link to a third party support system for MsAgent which works on Win7.

I'm glad that someone has taken this out of MS hands, it may not be the most useful technology, but it has features that other systems haven't implemented yet.

Besides, I really don't like the Haptek stuff I see. If it's not real enough to fool me I would just as soon look at a cartoon. And with cartoons you're only limited by your imagination.

37

Ultra Hal 7.0 / New MSAgent

« on: December 21, 2009, 08:36:40 am »

6) I forgot my new interest in Mouse Breeding Genetics

http://www.fancymice.info/links2.htm

38

Ultra Hal 7.0 / New MSAgent

« on: December 21, 2009, 08:00:38 am »

I've been playing around with it, like I said, for a while. It's been a couple of years since I really used it so I'm having to refresh my skills again. As a result I have rendered many images without moving forward on my Agent at all.

I used to know a guy who did a lot of mech renderings, I should look him up.

39

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Organization?

« on: December 21, 2009, 07:37:58 am »

quote:Originally posted by Harkle

Just wondering if I am missing something here. Is there a website/ depository of sorts (other than this forum) where all of the authors of skins, plugins, etc are interacting together. Sharing code, art, and ideas with each other.

It's supposed to be here, and there is some revival of interest. Truthfully, I was gone for a long time because of the vulgar and hostile attitude of some folks who are mostly now gone. So if I have anything to say about it, there will be some such conversation happening here.

I need a skin myself. I should make one.

40

General Discussion / Re-installation

« on: December 21, 2009, 03:59:56 am »

Hasn't the above post by "RgetsryCehker" gone into the range of a spambot?

I mean here someone comes with a legitimate question, and wham, attack of the spambot.

41

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Address book.

« on: December 21, 2009, 03:49:26 am »

Unfortunately, the emphasis on Hal being a conversational robot leaves it fairly limited as far as an actual address book. It's possible that plugins exist to do some or all of what you ask, but by itself, probably not.

For second phone numbers you might be able to get Hal to store as two separate names, "Bob Jones Home" or "Bob Jones Cellular". I haven't tried this, but it's possible.

As far as confidentiality, the file is not encrypted, but is available to anyone who can look at files on your computer, or who is standing in earshot at the time you say the wrong phrase and Hal responds with client info.

However, with a little bit of scripting, someone could develop an administrative assistant plugin. By "a little bit" I mean a concerted effort by an experienced scripter. You would say a sentence with a code phrase and the person's name, and Hal would read off the information.

As a general principle, Hal will become just about anything that enough people want it to become. If folks like you keep asking for more capabilities in the professional range, someone will develop them. That's the strength of Hal and these forums. Please feel free to post all your questions and wishlists!

And Welcome, as I notice this is your first post.

42

Ultra Hal 7.0 / New MSAgent

« on: December 20, 2009, 01:57:24 pm »

Povray is a whole different thing, and it's real strength is in rendering. It has a bunch of features that I will never use, radiosity, atmospheres and such. Sort of like using Photoshop to remove redeye... that's where I'm at.

The reason I use it is that you can script movement and such right into the scene using geometry and math, then walk away while it renders your series of images. There are probably better solutions now, but I've used it for about 12 years and I'm kinda used to it.

The script will be familiar to you beyond the actual objects, if/then/else etc. etc.

If you load up some of the "Basic scenes" and render them you can see most of it, although they do throw in all the options even when not used and make a unreadable mess of some of it.

43

Ultra Hal 7.0 / New MSAgent

« on: December 20, 2009, 12:16:54 pm »

Yeah, but meanwhile I am so scattered with different projects that I rarely get any real progress on any of them.

I should be working in Povray right now, but instead I have been playing with "Pencil" 2D animator.

I need to focus.

44

Ultra Hal 7.0 / New MSAgent

« on: December 20, 2009, 11:24:18 am »

I've got it about 90%, if Christmas were in 6 weeks I would be fine. I'll play it slower and my Church group is more forgiving of my playing than I am...

45

Ultra Hal 7.0 / New MSAgent

« on: December 20, 2009, 10:29:58 am »

1) Still trying to rig up a good shopping list plugin.
2) Making the Mech MsAgent as per this thread
3) Learning "Carol of the Bells" on ukulele like this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7eCz8SC86U ... before Christmas!
4) Figuring out how to program for Mobile Phones in VB
5) Stop motion animation green screen studio in my hall closet.

BTW, am I the only one having trouble making the formatting tags work on this forum?