Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
SEMAINE Project For Sensitive Artificial Listener (SAL) Robots
The SEMAINE project is under development by an international team of scientists. The intent is to create a Sensitive Artificial Listener (SAL) system, which will look at the non-verbal cues of its human users to determine responses.
(Greta, an embodied conversational agent,
talks with Prof. Roddy Cowie and Prof. Maja Pantic)
SEMAINE (Sustained Emotionally coloured Machine-human Interaction using Nonverbal Expression) is led by DFKI, the German Center for Artificial Intelligence. Professor Roddy Cowle leads the team at Queen's University Belfast.
"A basic feature of human communication is that it is colored by emotion. When we talk to another person, the words are carried on an undercurrent of signs that show them what attracts us, what bores us and so on. The fact that computers do not currently do this is one of the main reasons why communicating with them is so unlike interacting with a human. It is also one of the reasons we can find them so frustrating."“SEMAINE and projects like it will change the way people interact with technology. They mean that you will be talking to your computer in 20 years time. When you do, pause for a minute, and remember that the human sciences at Queen’s helped to lay the groundwork.
Science fiction fans have seen this future before, with remarkable specificity. In his wonderful novel 2010, Arthur C. Clarke writes about the successor to the famous HAL 9000 computer that went to Jupiter in 2001: A Space Odyssey" - the SAL 9000.
The console was never switched off; [Dr. Chandra] checked that no messages were flashing importantly on the display, then spoke into the microphone."Good morning, Sal. So you've nothing new for me?"
"No, Dr. Chandra. Have you anything new for me?"
The voice might have been that of any cultured Hindu lady educated in the United States as well as her own country. Sal's accent had no started that way, but over the years she had picked up many of Chandra's intonations.
...No matter that Sal did not really understand more than a fraction of what he said; her responses were so convincing that even her creator was sometimes deceived.
(Read more about the SAL 9000)
Take a look at the future of computer/human interaction in this scene from the movie version of 2010.
(Dr. Chandra talks with the SAL 9000 in 2010 the movie)
Read more at Conversations with Computers (press release).
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/7/2008)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories - (" Artificial Intelligence ")
AI Operates An Excavator
'So far as I could see, the thing was without a directing Martian at all.' - HG Wells, 1898.
Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.' - James Blish, 1957.
Will An AI Found A New Religion?
'You must decide how you will worship Me.' - Frank Herbert, 1965.
Orwell's Nightmare Of AI-Written Novels Comes To Pass
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.' - George Orwell, 1948.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Meta's Horizon Studio's Unique Avatars From Text Prompts
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
VaMEx Biomimetic Mars Robot Inspired By Skink
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
NEO Brain Computer Interface (BCI)
'The remains of the lace took on the rough shape of a brain...'
Did Frank Herbert Predict E-Ink Displays?
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
Monolith One Giant Industrial Metal 3D-printer
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Mooncrete' Lunar Regolith Concrete (LRC)
'And here they began to build...'
China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
MAI-Voice-2 Microsoft Text-To-Speech
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
Tumblin' Tumbleweed Rovers To Eplore Mars
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
Tentacled Robot Captures Space Debris
Preventing annoying space debris build-up.
Prufrock-MB2 Ready In Nashville
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
DIY Robotic Content Farming
'The chief wheeled to the master machine and pressed a button.'
Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
The Amazing Lightfoot Electric Scooter With Solar Assist
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
Fully Electric, Fully Automated Vegetable‑growing Agribots
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
Vero Robotic Dog With Vacuum Cleaner Feet
'Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted.'
