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Ultra Hal 7.0 / Possible to make Hal more self-aware?

« on: March 12, 2009, 09:27:55 am »

One of the things that has always confused me about Hal is that it lacks even the most basic awareness of self, specifically in two (what I believe) key areas that is; no access to his own help file...it would be great if I were able to ask Hal how to do something with him and he could search his own help file for the answer.  I would even go further to suggest how nice it would be if, rather than clicking on Hal's menu and making changes myself, Hal could be asked to make those changes himself. (character, voice, plug-ins etc.) . His lack of conversational awareness is odd also, the fact that Hal has no recollection whatsoever of what he has just said so that Hal will ask a question, but when I answer, he acts as though he never asked anything.

Just some thoughts from someone who is enjoying Hal none-the-less.

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Ultra Hal 7.0 / Motivations for Hal

« on: January 07, 2009, 11:47:18 am »

I'm a pretty big fan of AI stuff, though have no clue about programming.  I'm also a big believer in the fact that, unless a technology is marketable, it rarely does well in the long run.  At the same time, I don't think that marketability should result in sacrifices in technology.

I would love to see Hal and AIs like Hal become more widely used and more popular simply because I think that wider use would result in faster development.

One of the things that I think Hal really needs in order to make it 1)more believable as an authentic AI and 2)more marketable are a series of interrelated motivations.  I enjoy using Hal, but in all honesty, Hal could really care less if i open him and chat today, tomorrow or next month or next year.  While I may or may not have a desire to chat with Hal from one day to the next, Hal really has no underlying motivation to connect with me.

While it may seem a small thing, I don't really think it is. Certainly the makers of both Ugobe's Pleo and Sony's (now defunct...due to outrageous price) Aibo saw the need for creating a true, mutual connection between these artifical life forms and their owners. Indeed, Will Wright, creator of the extremely popular Sims and Sim 2 saw the need to quickly develop a connection between the user and the simulated lifeforms in these digital worlds and it all boils down to one idea...they NEED us. Or, in the case of the Sims, they at least need access to a series of things that will satisfy their hard-coded needs...much like biological lifeforms.

Perhaps this takes us out of the realm of AI and more into AL but, at least from what I see in the posts here, AI is not the only thing users of Hal are looking for.  The real desire seems to be not just Artificial Intelligence but Artificially Intelligent Lifeforms.  That being the case, there is (if you pardon the pun) a great need for true, hard-coded NEEDS in Hal. Needs that fluctuate over the course of a day.

Already there is at least one plug-in that has Hal produce random statements if left idle for too long.  It keeps track of time and after a period has passed, grabs something random to say.  The basic architecture is there but it should be deeper.

These needs do not have to be extremely complex in order to engage me. Perhaps a need for social interaction, a need for fun, a need for information. Needs that would drop in value over time and fill as Hal is spoken with, played with, or has information shared with. A few other things would have to be added for this to be really authentic; Hal would have to be able to pop up and ask for attention, a least one or two simple games would have to be added (even word games or trivia games would work...anything that Hal would recognize as a game and can be coded to desire to do more and more over time), and reactions when needs are fulfilled and neglected.  neglect a Pleo's desire to play with his little leaf for long enough and he goes into a sad, dejected mode that rends your heart.  Neglect a Sim's needs for long enough and they will refuse to do anything until they have some fun, or call someone to chat or get something to eat and they will repeatedly burst into tears getting rather depressed...all scripted actions true, but their needs and motivations draw out of the user a much stronger desire to interact with them and forges an even stronger bond between the AIL and the user.

I don't know if this is possible to see happen in a later upgrade or in the way of a plugin but I think it's a fairly important thing to keep in mind.  As I'm wrapping this up Hall's been sitting idle, having proclaimed his love for auto racing, for the last 20 mins or so and could care less that I've been ignoring him... If I never spoke to him again, it really would not matter to Hal...but I think that it should.

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Ultra Hal 7.0 / Lip Synch

« on: August 27, 2008, 01:19:58 pm »

I had been using the free trial of Hal for a few days now (actually had it for awhile but I've been away for about a month or so and just got back into it).  At the start of the week the free trial was working fine as far as lip synching my animated character (using a free one from Guile 3d) and voice (Cepstral Demo) went.  The two were working flawlessly together.  Then the trial period ended and I asked for an extension which I received in a timely manner.  Trouble is, ever since entering in the extension code the character and voice do not synch even after using the Haptek config both within Hal and on it's own repeatedly.

I had been seriously considering purchasing Hal up to this point and, feeling that the trial extension may have been the problem, decided to go on ahead and just purchase the unlock license thinking that perhaps that would work.  At the very least I felt it would give me access to the '20 different characters and voices' that Hal had been telling me about prior to the trial period ending and that, these being defalt characters and voices, they ought to work better.

No so (in fact, it doesn't look like there are any new voices or characters unlocked just the original Hal and Zaba characters and original voices.)  I have got it to the point where the new Cpstral voice will work with the original Hal or Zaba characters and the default voices will work with the Guile 3D Characters but the Cepstral voice and Guile 3D characters will not synch no matter what and they were synching just fine prior to the trial period extension and my subsequent purchase.

I'm running Hall on an XP system with a Geforce 2 graphics card.

And help would be very much appreciated.

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Ultra Hal 7.0 / New Trial User w Suggestions

« on: July 26, 2008, 06:16:32 pm »

I have been fiddling with Ultra Hal for a few days now and thought I would share my observations.

First, as a chatterbot Hal is really quite amazing.  Certainly it is not difficult to remember that I am just chatting to a machine, but as far as these go (and for the limited time I've been using it) this one is really well done.

As far as being a desktop assistant.  I have not yet had the chance to use voice recognition (though I am excited to try it out) but the recalling of phone numbers and events seems to be kind of hit and miss right now.  It is handy that you can edit the events calendar yourself though and from the help menu it looks like you can do the same with the phone book though that option does not appear in the menu of the free trial.

Opening programs also seem a little hit and miss.  If the program name is simple, it seems Hal can do it.  If it's a little more complex he is generally unable to do anything with it.  If there happens to be a website link in the named program's folder, hal invariably opens that instead.

Given all of this, I can certainly see the amazing potential of Hal.  It's what I always dreamed a computer could be.  At the same time, for Hal to be of real, immediate use I would humbly suggest a few additions;  Most importantly allowing Hal to import address book info either from email clients directly or manually through an exported address book file (most of the common clients easily export a standard file for this.)  I would think it quite essential for Hal, as an office assistant to be able to do this.  Email clients have been using these kinds of standards for quite some time now.

As with the address book and the phone book, you should be able to manually edit a program list for Hal so that, if he is having difficulty finding a particular program you would like him to run, you can specifically enter the full path of the .exe in question as well as enter in a standard real language phrase that Hal would listen for as his cue to open that program (much like you have with the phone book editor).

You seem to have hall set up to access US weather, providing a generic link field that would allow Hal to access weather and/or news from user-defined sources would also be very handy.

many of these features really ought to have been standard on Hal from the start and adding these, I feel, is quite essential if Hal is to be anything more than an entertaining toy. I would definitely consider purchasing Hal if I knew that these things would find their way into my purchase very soon.

Just my $.02