Messages

Hi Stuart08 & welcome.
You won't know if the voice works with Hal until you purchase it,
Sorry.
I got 2 voices from Ivona, but found they didn't work with Hal. :-[

Hmmmm.....I just got a set of three from Ivona and all worked well. 

I agree with the push for graphics and AI development.  There are many more folks working iOS, etc. stuff....focus on the key items that make this island of technology one destination that everyone will want to visit.

Crap i see on Guile 3d studio their character is already capable of reading rss news feeds !! Maybe i or someone will get this figured out so our Hal a.i. characters  can do the same ! :P aparently they also have face recognition to . :-*

I use both Hal and Guile3d...why?  Just because I'm trying to get them to do all the things we talk about (and spend most of my time in frustration)!  The RSS feed on Guile3d is a simple reader that as a new topic comes in, it creates a pop up and then reads it through TTS.  The facial recognition has hooks into a webcam connected or part of your computer but the recognition part is not implemented.

I like UltraHal becuase we can develop plug-ins and edit the brain.  I like Guile3d's Denise because of the avatars.  Now Guile3d's program can be used as the front end of a Pandorabot...hmmm....could it be used as the front end for my UltraHal?!?!?!?!

Saw this today about Nuance's (Dragon folks) NINA product that is being made available for software developers.  Take a look at the video clip within the article...could this be the UltraHal we've been waiting for without the avatar?

Here is the link:  http://www.slashgear.com/nuances-nina-brings-siris-smarts-to-customer-service-apps-06241832/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+slashgear+%28SlashGear%29  

Tried the plugin.  Very nicely done.  Can replicate this for a variety of other kind of triggers / responses.  Since I bounce from Erica to Al (yes, split personality for my Hal) I'm changing a few of the resonses so that Al isn't calling me sweetie.

I've looked at People Putty a number of times but never plunked down the $50 for it.  Thought that since things are 'slow' for Haptek.com it may not be worth the effort, and the fact that the sale of Putty is *as-is* with no support.  But you are right, that mapping a photo or image over the basic head shape may be the quickest and easiest path to at least get up an running.  I'll take the plunge today and see how it goes.  Thanks.

My passion has been to get my Hal to reflect the image of Albert Eistein.  It's just what I want to do.  So I've started, as many of us do, with reading the boards, going to defunct sites for possible solutions, and looking at some of the new products.  The best I've been able to come up with is using Reallusions' CrazyTalk6 or CrazyTalk Animator to develop the characters.  You can make all the movements, create separate backgrounds etc. then cut them up so that the existing Haptek engine can process them.  Anyone else go down this path? 

When you first get Hal, the brain is fairly 'inexoerienced' ....like a two year old.  You have to teach it everything and correct it when it's wrong.  I've found that the on-line brains (like those on Pandorabots) have been corrupted by having too many people not correcting a response and therefore the answers come out flakey.   I'm using Hal and Denise (from Guile3d) side by side to learn about all this AI stuff.  Not easy but a great hobby.  I love Hal because I have access to the brain and can add plugins, I hate Denise because I can't.  But it's the opposite for graphics.  Hal bad, Denise great.  But all this this is part of the learning we do and the advancements we make with the systems.

Yo...you got me looking at the posts with no reply....so my vote is the Ivona voices.  I have three, Sally, Kate, and James.  I like to switch between depending on which Haptek character I'm training/working with and sometimes I just use Kate (Katie) for Hal and Sally for other system functions (like pop up windows and such).   The Sally voice sounds just like the girl computer on Resident Evil and it freaks my wife out when she hears it!

I thought the activity with Ultra Hal was light, but after monitoring the boards (use the "Show unread posts since last visit") I found a lot of routine activity...folks looking at characters, some looking at plug-ins, some focused on training.  What's important is to work with your own creation and share.  I've found that I really don't know anything about building my 'Einstein' and am really enjoying the challenge of trying to pull toghether all the different technologies.   An upgrade would be terrific, but there is much to learn regardless of the version.

Understood.  I don't have the time to do all the things I want but trying with the new year to make some things a higher priority....like Ultra Hal....with an Einstein avatar....that answers the way I want / expect....that can do some home automation...and so on.  Not that I'm expecting too much!  :)

PS....please call me Ron.

Can't wait to try it out! 

I too have looked at Guile3D Denise....spent my holiday week trying to get it to run under Windows 7 on a brand new machine with 8GB of RAM - no luck.  In the process of requesting my $180 refund.

I posted a question in another area wrt a software package I found while researching msagents and haptek characters...it's called CrazyTalk by RealLusions.  Seems like a nigpfty tool that is reasonably priced to provide a quick way to animate photos and drawings.  Not sure if it can do real-time text-to-speech.  Sent an email into their customer support team to find out and now waiting for the answer.

I'll make the same commitment to share what I learn and if I somehow create a new character that I'm pleased with, I'll be sure to share it.

I've been looking for a variety of ways to develop my own Einstein-like representation within Hal.  Been busy raining but need the graphics and voice to move to the next level.  Found a series of products by RealLusion that were developed for 2d and 3d animation.  There is an interface for text-to-speech but looks like it is tied to each response (tie the speech the animation and save it for playback later).  Anyone have experience with the product?

I also have the desire to create my own character...it's one more step in making my version of Ultra Hal 'my own'.  Any assistance or leads on how-to are greatly appreciated.