The Future of Artificial Intelligence

Freddie McMahon

2009-03-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

I have now moved to http://twitter.com/fexcex focused upon customer experience - please join me there.

AI 169 Insects are being converted into cyborgs – the scientific challenge is handling the power for the cybernetics; ethical issues could be huge

2009-01-02T01:30:00.000-08:00

"Cyborg insects" (using remote-controlled or chip-based neural stimulators to control movements) could be powered by piezoelectric strips attached to their backs (generating 10 millivolts per fiber in in a proof-of-concept experiment), Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology researchers have found.

Powering these "stimulator chips" is a big limitation. "Wires from an external power source restrict their motion, and most battery cells are too heavy and wouldn't fit on the insect," says Keisuke Morishima from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in Japan. Smaller batteries have been used, but run down in as little as a few minutes.

Instead, Morishima suggests that the insects themselves could power the slave-driving chips. As a proof of concept, he glued a piezoelectric fibre - 4 centimetres in length but just 200 micrometres across - to the back of a Madagascar hissing cockroach. As the cockroach walked, each step stretched and squeezed the piezoelectric fibre, generating electricity via mechanical stress.

His experiments show that the cockroach's movement can generate more than 10 millivolts in a single fibre. About 100 of these fibres would be enough to power the stimulators, he says (Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpb.2008.09.055).

Kevin Warwick, a cybernetics expert at the University of Reading in the UK, thinks it may be difficult to store the generated energy in order to provide a steady supply throughout a cyborg insect's mission. He also thinks this number of fibres may be too heavy for the insect to carry. "I'm quite sceptical of the leap to using this as a power supply," he says.

However, Warwick says the method may be more easily applied to larger animals like rats, which could generate greater power when controlled using a similar system.

AI 168 EXPERT SYSTEMS versus DECISIONALITY DECISION-TREES

2009-01-01T03:44:00.000-08:00

EXPERT SYSTEMS

Primary Argument

The average life expectancy of an Expert System was 18 months as the inference engine weakness was that it lacked ‘human’ judgment to ‘know’ when to stop learning. As a consequence, it over learnt leading to decisioning distortions that are typically not obvious at first but then rapidly deteriorate. The problem was further exasperated as the Expert System is ‘black-box’ AI, which means there was no transparency of how decisions were made. The legacy of this issue has become more topical recently in the wider area of AI related to trust and ethical risks.

Secondary Argument

Knowledge acquisition required the coming together of two specialists: subject matter experts and knowledge engineers to develop the data and inference procedures. This created interpretation issues, plus high costs and elapsed time for knowledge acquisition.

Other Arguments

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_system/ summaries Expert Systems strengths and weaknesses quite well as:

Strengths:

• Provides consistent answers for repetitive decisions, processes and tasks
• Holds and maintains significant levels of information
• Encourages organizations to clarify the logic of their decision-making
• Never "forgets" to ask a question, as a human might

Weaknesses:

• Lacks common sense needed in some decision making
• Cannot make creative responses as human expert would in unusual circumstances
• Domain experts not always able to explain their logic and reasoning
• Errors may occur in the knowledge base, and lead to wrong decisions
• Cannot adapt to changing environments, unless knowledge base is changed

EXPERT SYSTEMS DECISION-TREES

Expert Systems use data driven Decision-Trees for forward and backward chaining. However, it is the use of data driven Decision-Trees combined with inference-based learning that led to the weakness of Expert Systems.

The use of Decision-Trees is fundamental to IF-THEN-ELSE so an alternative approach was needed that bypassed the weaknesses of Expert Systems.

DECISIONALITY DECISION-TREES

Many concept and technology challenges had to be overcome to provide an alternative set of technologies to Expert Systems.

One over riding challenge was that the tools had to be simple and natural to use. Though this has been achieved it does create the perception of familiarity from the past and being so simple how can it be any good.

This is our oxymoron as the technology is very simple to use but at the same time it can cope with the velocity, volatility and complexity of procedural knowledge.
Procedural knowledge is about IF-THEN-ELSE logic. Decision-Trees are a natural visualization for this type of logic. Of course, knowledge cannot be contained in one Decision-Tree. So by treating knowledge as a collection of Decision-Tree objects which can be linked enables an ecosystem to be created that can cover any breadth and depth. Indeed, this ecosystem of knowledge objects can grow and evolve without constraint.

This is quite a challenge as software convention is that the bigger a system becomes the more complex it is too build and there is a tipping point where it becomes untenable. Yet the ambition to cover all procedural knowledge that can continually evolve demanded a software solution that would have to be different. We solved this by:

• Automatically generating a stateless web-service from the Decision-Tree script – this means no database is used which is the opposite of an Expert System.

• Enable the Decision-Tree script to dynamically link with a web-service that required a handover to a different knowledge set.

This combination enables creation and change to happen at the ‘speed of articulation’ thus supporting the development of an ecosystem that can change and grow as fast as is needed.

At the same time this approach solved another problem and that is the usage of the knowledge. People only want to navigate down the pathways of their choice without having to be exposed to the landscape of the knowledge. We have found that knowledge interaction can go deep very quickly at the rate of say a step every 5 to 8 seconds.
This approach means the only limit to the number of pathways and outcomes that can be interacted with is a constraint of the Decision-Tree scripting and not a constraint of the technology.

Because we can automatically measure the interaction in terms of steps, flows, patterns and metrics the learning loops can be very fast but they are human controlled. This whole approach is white-box.

The combination of capabilities provides a sound foundation for the acquisition, application and usage of procedural knowledge that can be accessed by any connected device or application.

The DecisionFlows scripting tool embraces visualization, narration and simulation. It is designed to improve logical thought and the acquisition of knowledge.

The Decisionality Decision-Trees use forward and backward chaining techniques as do Expert Systems. The difference is Expert Systems are data driven whereas the Decisionality is driven by human interaction.

Here are some other points for consideration of advantages between Decisionality Decision-Trees over Expert Systems:

1. Decision-Trees are simple to script whereas an Expert System needs a knowledge engineer thus creating a skills shortage plus overheads for knowledge capture from subject matter experts.

2. Decision-Trees are an open system as it is easy to link the end of a pathway within a Decision-Tree to the start of another pathway in another Decision-Tree. An Expert System is a closed system as it is constrained by the design of its inference engine and application.

3. Decision-Trees are simple ‘natural’ programs that can adapt to complexity and chaotic conditions. Expert Systems are designed to cope with a complicated system, but have difficulty coping with the dynamics of complexity and chaos. (20 years validation Stephen Wolfram New Kind of Science).

4. Decision-Trees are stateless whereas Expert Systems are data driven, which has an embedded complexity cost as more data items are developed and used.

5. Decision-Trees are a white-box meaning it is transparent, simple to understand and interpret. People are able to understand Decision-Tree models and therefore are designed for organizational retention of knowledge. Expert Systems are a black-box that is complex to understand and has greater reliance upon tacit knowledge of a specialist that dilutes overtime.

6. Decision-Trees can have value very quickly even with a small number of nodes. Important insights can be gained from usage that often stimulates ideas for knowledge evolution that were not obvious at first. Expert Systems in comparison evolve slowly and to the point of decision contamination.

7. Decision-Trees can be created by subject matter experts without the need for software specialists as with Expert Systems.

8. Decision-Tree dynamic linking generates an exponential growth of pathways and outcomes compared to a far slow rate from Expert Systems that will then reach a plateau without further advancement being made.

9. Decision-Trees development enriches inductive and deductive reasoning as it focuses upon pathways and outcomes. This value is largely diluted with Expert Systems as it is in the hands of the knowledge engineer and not the subject matter experts.

10. The interactive use of Decision-Trees, via web-services, and the automated analyses of interactions provide short learning loops enabling Decision-Trees to be evolved rapidly based on behavioral insights. Expert Systems capabilities weaken overtime as mentioned.

11. The reuse of Decision-Trees and dynamic linking of Decision-Trees (via web-services) increases value overtime enabling exponential growth of pathways and outcomes in very short time frames.

12. Decision-Trees with stateless web-services do not create legacy systems unlike Expert Systems.

13. Expert Systems decreases in value overtime whenever there are high rates of complexity, velocity and volatility. The opposite is true for a Decision-Tree ecosystem.

14. Decision-Tree scripts have been extended to influence behaviour of usage so that other mediums like pictures can be used to influence decisioning. This is accomplished because of event-tags being available for each scripted step. This level of granularity is not available from Expert Systems.

15. As the Decision-Tree generates a web-service this can be accessed across all digital touchpoints. Expert Systems do not typically have this level of interoperability.

16. The construction of the Decision-Tree is simply not just focused on business logic but on good dialogue and choices to influence behaviour and decisioning. The automated analyses of behaviour enable the Decision-Tree to adapt to behavioral dynamics. Additionally, dialogue narrative can change according to pathways chosen. Expert Systems have limited capabilities for the nuances of different behaviors.

17. Decision-Tree source and its web-service representation are measurable as a knowledge asset. This is not the case with Expert Systems.

18. Decision-Trees can be developed in parallel with each one often being built in a matter of hours. Therefore the speed of building an ecosystem from existing procedural knowledge is very fast.

AI 167 MS&V is regarded as high growth sector within the current economic climate

2008-12-29T03:55:00.001-08:00

The relatively new industry of modeling, simulation and visualization (MS&V) comprises numerous planning, analysis and training tools made possible by sophisticated computing. These tools can suggest and test concepts, minimizing reliance upon trial and error, and they can present information in ways that enhance comprehension.

For example, the tools might teach a medical student how to perform a surgical procedure without putting an actual patient in harm's way. Other applications are seen in simulations to test aircraft designs, in vehicular traffic models to simulate — and improve — flow along highways, in video games to teach algebra, and in models to predict the performance of a soldier or an athlete. Artificial intelligence, robotics and virtual environments also are part of MS&V.

AI 166 Big Stage launches a “Portable You” avatar for integration into 3rd party solutions

2008-12-16T00:15:00.000-08:00

Big Stage Entertainment (for previous references go to AI 129 and AI 56) announced today the launch of its "Portable You" program, which opens up its 3D facial modeling system to third parties for integration in games, virtual worlds, websites, mobile apps, and more.

The first announced partner is Icarus Studios, which will integrate the system with its virtual worlds’ platform.

Virtual event solutions provider, The Venue Network, already plans on adopting the face creation tools for its customers, allowing them to network with their own animated, lip-synched faces.

“Given the complexity of human faces, developing high-fidelity, realistic facial construction systems for avatars is incredibly costly and requires highly specialized skill sets,” said James Hettinger CEO, Icarus Studios. “PortableYou” offers an easy and cost-effective way for us to integrate sophisticated cloning capabilities into the virtual worlds we create. Our clients are very excited that their users can now create accurate virtual representations of themselves for use in their worlds, at development costs that generate significant ROI for incorporating the innovation in user experience that the PortableYou system make possible.”
Portable You includes APIs, code samples, methods and reference libraries for customization.

“By offering a powerful, unified system for the integration of a realistically animated 3-D version of yourself into your digital life, PortableYou has the potential to revolutionize how we both entertain ourselves and communicate through digital media,” said Phil Ressler, Big Stage Entertainment CEO. “With the high level of personalization that PortableYou makes possible, digital media can evolve to truly reflect who we are in the real world, whether through life-like extension or alter ego fantasy. Faces are fundamental to human communication and adding recognizable, animated avatars to an application changes it fundamentally."

AI 165 AI Inventor creates his own robotic wife and he is pleased because she has 13,000 dialogue sentences and can feel pain!

2008-12-12T01:31:00.000-08:00

Le Trung , an inventor in Canada has created his very own fembot called Aiko.
The living doll's skin has been created out of silicone and, according to its creator, "is the first android to mimic pain, and reacts to it."
Trung has created the 'pain' technology to aid others, explaining: "this technology can be beneficial for people born with or who have undergone amputations. This is the first step toward a life-like mechanical limb that has the ability to feel physical sensation."

To make the robot more lifelike, Trung has created something called Biometric Robot Artificial Intelligence Neural System (aka BRAINS) software, which means Aiko has the ability to talk and interact with humans, and houses a database of over 13,000 sentences.

The robot is so advanced that it can analyse the weather and if you are about to go outside, Aiko will tell you to bring an umbrella if it is going to rain or wear warmer clothes if it is windy.

AI 164 Study states that by 2020 social robots will be common place in our society with personalized interactions with humans

2008-12-10T00:44:00.000-08:00

Spanish researchers have carried out a study looking into the potential future impact of robots on society.

Their conclusions show that the enormous automation capacity of robots and their ability to interact with humans will cause a technological imbalance over the next 12 years between those who have them and those who do not.

“Just as we depend upon mobile phones and cars in our daily lives today, the next 15 years will see mass hybridisation between humans and robots,” predicts Antonio López Peláez, a professor of sociology at Spain’s National Distance Learning University, UNED, and co-author of the study on the future social impact of robots, jointly carried out with the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies.

International experts working on inventing and adapting cutting edge robots for practical use were interviewed during the study, in order to find out by when we will be regularly using the models they are currently designing.

All agreed on 2020 as a technological inflection point, because by then robots “will be able to see, act, speak, manage natural language and have intelligence, and our relationship with them will have become more constant and commonplace”, said López Peláez.

This will follow a revolution in robotics after which they will no longer be sophisticated machines, but tools to be used on a daily basis, helping us with a large number of work and social activities.

The most striking feature of this technological revolution are social robots, machines with artificial intelligence, and with which we will have emotional and personalised interactions.

“A robot might be a more effective partner and a better person than the humans we actually have in our immediate lives: just as you can see dog owners talking to their pets today, soon we will be talking to robots,” says López Peláez

AI 163 HiPiHi continues to grown the Chinese virtual world market with 75,000 registered users

2008-12-10T00:28:00.000-08:00

Chinese virtual world HiPiHi now claims 75,000 registered users on mainland China, said President Xu Hui in 21st Century Business Herald. While the total number of registrations is likely even higher, as HiPiHi has pursued an international strategy, though not particularly aggressively, its Mainland base contribute about 3,000 to 4,000 active users.

According to the report, HiPiHi is also working with the city government to build versions of historic Wuhan in the Hubei province.

AI 162 EKI One ai middleware now launched for avatar behaviour for authentic character simulation

2008-12-09T01:06:00.000-08:00

Germany-based middleware developer Artificial Technology has released the first version of its AI and emotional intelligence middleware solution - EKI One - across Europe, with free trials being made available. We covered this as emergent technology before – please refer to AI 51.

EKI One 1.0 is designed to bolt onto existing game engines and aims to add depth to titles by giving developers an effective, affordable solution to AI and emotion.
"With EKI One 1.0, we proudly present a software solution that allows game and level designers, script designers and programmers to define character behaviour efficiently and with ease from cognition and movement characteristics to intelligent decision-making," said Serein Pfeiffer, technical director and co-founder of Artificial Technology GmbH.

"The specifications and requests we received from our developer partners have had a direct bearing on the development of EKI One 1.0. We have combined ease of use with the technological depth required for authentic character simulation in a single, well-rounded package."

This is commercially ahead of the work being done by The University of the Balearic Islands (refer to AI 161).

AI 161 Smart responsive facial expressions for avatars in 3d web and virtual worlds has been developed

2008-12-09T00:31:00.000-08:00

The University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) has developed a computer application that enables the generation of faces that includes emotions and moods.

The study has been published in the latest edition of the magazine Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds.

“The aim of this work has been to design a model that reveals a person's moods and displays them on a virtual face”, SINC was informed by one of the authors of the study, Diana Arellano, from the UIB’s Computer and Artificial Intelligence Graphics and Vision Unit. “In the same 3-D space we have integrated personality, emotions and moods, which had previously been dealt with separately”, Arellano explained to SINC.

The designers have followed the theories of Albert Mehrabian to draw up the model, based on the five personality traits established by this American psychologist:

• Extraversion

• Neuroticism

• Openness

• Conscientiousness

• Agreeableness

“Every personality can be considered an emotional state by default”, indicated Arellano.

An introverted and neurotic personality is therefore related to an anxious emotional state.

The points of the face that define these emotions can be determined mathematically, and the algorithms developed by computer experts can be used to obtain different facial expressions “quickly and easily”.

The system, which uses the MPEG-4 video coding standard for creating images, makes it possible to display basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise) and intermediate situations.

“Our next step is to leave the MPEG-4 standard aside and concentrate on a high-quality generic network which will enable the inclusion of both wrinkles and eye, eyelid and head movements, as well as synthesize the voice”, the researcher concluded.

AI 160 Growth of layered avatars for 2d web sites continues to grow rapidly using conversational marketing and new forms of socialization

2008-12-03T23:15:00.000-08:00

2d web sites are creating or attracting avatars for conversational marketing and new forms of socialization.

2d web avatars technologies include:

• Clivevideo http://www.clivevideo.com/

• Rocketon http://rocketon.com/

• Weblim http://www.weblin.com/

Also more technology is emerging to support avatars with ai such as

• Natural Language from LiveWorld’s Livebar http://www.liveworld.com/solutions/livebar.html

• Scripted Language from Decisionality www.decisionality.com

The combination of 2d web avatars and chat engines brings benefits of

1. Brand stickiness
2. Personalization thru conversational marketing
3. Product placement
4. Interactive edutainment
5. Interactive puzzles
6. Interactive books
7. Interactive platform games

AI 159 USA Army to use Olive for immersive learning

2008-12-02T01:58:00.000-08:00

Just today, Forterra announced a contract to integrate with Army technology for simulations and collaboration.

The Army trains 500,000 Soldiers every year and there is a significant diversity of learning abilities among those 500,000 human beings. What we are after is to develop better ways of training them so they can all be trained up to certain skill levels," Dr. John Parmentola, director for Army research and laboratory management told Nanotechwire.com of neuroscience research into training.

The goal is also to use virtual environments that builds on that research. "That's about creating virtual worlds that are essentially indistinguishable from reality. One of the key challenges we have in that area is to create virtual humans. Of course the work of neuroscience plays a key role in trying to create virtual humans that, for all intents and purposes, act and interact just like humans."

For more information please refer to AI 78.

AI 158 Is it the time to bring the jobs back home?

2008-11-28T03:53:00.000-08:00

The world is under going seismic changes and the only thing for sure is that things will be very different moving forward.

The latest tragedy in India of terrorists targeting USA and UK citizens is raising concerns about corporate dependency upon critical offshore services for national business.

At the same time both the USA and UK need to find new jobs fast. But, and it’s a big but, the credit liquidity crises is forcing corporates to cut costs by downsizing and outsourcing more business operations.

What will happen if these outsourced jobs go offshore?

There is no doubt that if the USA and UK continue to outsource services to offshore then their national socioeconomic implications could be disastrous.

Is there an alternative?

The USA and UK can do what they do best and that is use innovation to create new jobs fast.

Since offshoring took momentum there have been big strides in technology using artificial intelligence, virtual call centers and virtual working that when combined could well become more cost effective than offshoring. With sociopolitical pressures to create new jobs at home combined with new innovative technologies may be enough to move market sentiment to bring the jobs back home.

AI 157 Whyville introduces micro transactions and a new virtual pet service called WhyPets

2008-11-28T00:23:00.000-08:00

Numedeon announced yesterday a change in the business model of its premiere property, Whyville.

"We've had a subscription system for two years. We've consolidated that into a new system we call Pearls," explained CEO Jim Bower.
"The obvious reason to do this is that we think that the economic viability of virtual worlds, you need to have multiple different ways to get income. We are and remain primarily sponsorship and advertising based. In addition, having income that derives from the site itself remains a more stable and predictable source of income. "

As with everything in Whyville, stresses Bower, there's also an educational component.

The system is built on micro transactions and virtual goods to replace the traditional subscription model, but it bears elements of subscriptions on its own.
That interest in supporting a favored product may be part of it, but Whyville is also making the Pearls attractive with new, exclusive features. The Pearls announcement dovetailed with the launch of WhyPets, which let users buy, care for, and train pets in the virtual world. Eventually users will be able to gift, win, and earn WhyPets in various ways, but for now they're limited to Pearl purchases.
The company says that while other kids worlds have offered pets before, WhyPets are unique in the way that they learn and react to the way they're treated and trained.

"There is a sort of AI base to it. They both sort of respond to kindness from their owners and others. They have a range of behavior from friendly to a little unfriendly. They don't bite, but they can be more or less cooperative based on the kindness they receive and whether they're fed regularly and things like that," said Bower. "We're about to launch tomorrow a feature for pets where they will be able to sniff out and dig hidden treasure on the site, Clams or projectiles or other sorts of items that you can send your pets out to root around and find. That's something the pet is more willing to do if you have a better relationship with your pet."

The focus on micro transactions, new items, and pets that acquire even more virtual goods seems like a strong emphasis on collecting and managing properties in the virtual world. Bower says that the acquisition of items and aggregation of resources is a motivator for anyone, especially kids, and that it's paying off in Whyville.
"Whyville has very high engagement numbers—the highest in kids virtual worlds according to Comscore.

The average login last month was 34 minutes," he said. "Anything that motivates them to be on the site is a fcator, and having them come on and spend time to train their pets builds stickiness. It's a factor for engagement, that's what we specialize in. It's anecdotal at this point, but I think it's having that effect."

AI 156 Robot soldiers aim to become more ethical than human soldiers but they also need to engage in conversation

2008-11-28T00:03:00.000-08:00

Military robots soldiers already are being used for sentry duty and performing dangerous work like detecting mines. But these are controlled by humans. To make them autonomous requires the military to tackle ethical issues. This is now being actively researched:

“My research hypothesis is that intelligent robots can behave more ethically in the battlefield than humans currently can,” said Ronald C. Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech, who is designing software for battlefield robots under contract with the Army. “That’s the case I make.”

Now all we need is for these robot soldiers that act as say security guards to be able to talk – best call me and I show you how!!

AI 155 Adobe Flash boosted for 3d web as FreeSpin3D solution turns the web into a 3D environment

2008-11-27T23:31:00.000-08:00

The 3d web received a boost today.

Powered by FreeSpin3DTM, the First Solution to Enable Importing and Real Time Rendering of 3D in Adobe® Flash®, is Released by Revolver.

The FreeSpin3D solution turns the web into a 3D environment, enabling any flash designer and developer to easily import and use 3D models in 2D Flash movies
Herzliya, Israel - November 17, 2008 (INB) -- Revolver, a leading provider of 3D content development solutions for the graphic design and game development industries, announced today the release of its patent pending product, FreeSpin3DTM.
FreeSpin3DTM is the first commercial solution for importing and real-time rendering of 3D Models into Adobe® Flash®.

The FreeSpin3DTM (Beta version) was successfully implemented by more than 10,000 flash developers and designers around the world. The solution is available at the company website, www.FreeSpin3D.com.

FreeSpin3DTM is the first software that makes 3D development simple, fast, and effective, enabling all Flash designers and developers to create real time 3D content. With FreeSpin3DTM, designers and developers can add dynamic 3D graphics to their 2D environment-based online games, animations, advertisements, web design, entertainment and interactive content.

Until now, developers looking to add 3D elements to their Flash movies were forced to use prerendered elements to import their 3D content into Flash. This time-consuming process requires a fully rendered frame-by-frame rendition, increasing file size and reducing interactivity. FreeSpin3DTM is the first program to cut out this lengthy process by enabling the display and management of 3D objects directly within the Adobe Flash work space, using the FreeSpin3DTM Action Script interface. Once the developer imports 3D models into FreeSpin3DTM, it manipulates and compiles them into a data structure suitable for 3D object rendering in Adobe® Flash. This overall process strengthens the interaction between the user, the developer and the 3D object, creating simple and powerful 3D in Flash.

The FreeSpin3DTM bundle, priced at $299 per license, includes the FreeSpin3DTM import engine, the FreeSpin3DTM development environment, and one year of updates. Some of the main FreeSpin3D features are:

• Auto 3D tweening

• Live 3D preview on the Flash stage

• Z depth sorting

• 3D Physics/behaviors

• Access to 3D ActionScript API

• Flash Timeline support

• Optimized for commercial use and distribution in terms of CPU, RAM, and file size efficiency

"We view that the release of FreeSpin3DTM will present a real opportunity to more than 2 million Flash developers and designers that are looking for new creative & revenue streams of quality 3Dcontent within their Adobe Flash productions. FreeSpin3DTM is Adobe® Flash® with near-native 3D support, it is literally 3D in a FlashTM!" says Amir Fischer, CEO of Revolver.

AI 154 Google withdraws from the 3d web as Lively fails

2008-11-23T23:41:00.000-08:00

This is the official quote from Google:

“In July we launched Lively in Google Labs because we wanted users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways. Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it's the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people's lives. But we've also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off.

That's why, despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we've decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year. It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business. Lively.com will be discontinued at the end of December, and everyone who has worked on the project will then move on to other teams.

We'd encourage all Lively users to capture your hard work by taking videos and screenshots of your rooms.”

Further references about Lively can be found at AI 16, 50, 70, 75 81 and 119.

AI 153 Linden Lab’s accelerate investment for the 3d web

2008-11-22T02:40:00.001-08:00

An excellent interview by Dusan Writer’s Metaverse Blog with Mark Kingdon, Chief Executive of Linden Lab http://dusanwriter.com/index.php/2008/11/21/interview-mark-kingdon-second-life-linden-lab/ provides the material for the following:

3D web is a high barrier to entry for 2d web competitors as it works so differently on many dimensions as it is far more than just technology it’s a different way of thinking.

The priority for future investment is focused on key customer sectors
• the consumer market (80% of the investment with links to the other sectors)
• the enterprise market (which includes government)
• the education market

New hires are experts in the consumer or content market and include
• Chief Product Officer, T Linden (Tom Hale) comes from Adobe/Macromedia. Arguably Macromedia is one of the most important enablers of creativity on the web with Flash, Photoshop and their other content creation and delivery tools. Tom is going to lead us in wonderful new directions there that all converge on the consumer market.
• SVP of Global Technology, FJ Linden (Frank Ambrose) comes from AOL where he helped the company scale for a huge market.

Linden Lab measures everything and have real-time/near real time charts for anything you can imagine. They monitor the drivers of active user growth, look at every stage in the user life cycle from cradle to grave so to speak – from web traffic to registrations to activations to an hour in-world to retention at 3, 6, 9, 12 months. They also looks at different types of users and their activity level — people who come to explore, people who come to create, people who come to run a business.

Companies were emphatic that Linden Lab have a behind the firewall solution so we are creating one. It’s in Alpha now and will be in Beta in the first part of next year. Alpha is filled up and beta is nearly so but if people are interested they should contact Chris Collins — ChrisC@LindenLab.com.

AI 152: Procter and Gamble uses virtualization with major retailers to test product changes

2008-11-18T00:24:00.000-08:00

“Virtualization is a huge area for Procter and Gamble, and we mix the virtual and real worlds a lot. For example, designing a new Hugo Boss perfume bottle uses a fraction of the cost of making physical mock-ups. We also use fully immersive 3D environments such as Caves (computer-augmented virtual environments) to demonstrate ideas to our big customers. “So whereas before we would have to convince Tesco to actually change a store layout to test an idea, we can now create it virtually and walk them round it.”

Meri Williams, information decision solutions manager, Procter and Gamble

AI 151 P&G pioneer simulation and virtualization to cut costs and accelerate innovation for 80% of their initiatives

2008-11-17T23:56:00.000-08:00

Source: WWD Beauty; Author: Molly Prior

The Procter & Gamble Co. aims to increase its physical presence with a dedicated push toward virtualization.

In its ongoing quest to cut costs and accelerate innovation, the consumer products giant has been using virtualization, computer modelling and simulation to more efficiently create products, complete with consumer input, and bring them to market faster. P&G began implementing virtualization capabilities in 2002, and is currently using them in roughly 80 percent of its initiatives, said Scott Hagen; P&G’s virtual solutions service manager.

In the company’s 2008 annual report, chairman and chief executive officer A.G. Lafley stated,

“Virtualization is enabling P&G brands to codesign products with consumers. The same technologies allow us to show retailers virtual in-store displays for half the cost and less than half the time required for physical shelf designs. Computer modelling and simulation saved P&G about 17 years of design time in the last year alone.”

The technology, first deployed to P&G’s research and development arm, is used for product formulation, consumer testing and in-store merchandising.

To make a shampoo, for instance, Hagen noted virtualization technology is used to speed the formulation and the chemistry during the R&D process, and later to develop the bottle and its graphics. All the while, the steps incorporate consumer feedback, which is funnelled into the process.

“Virtualization allows P&G more opportunities to expose consumers to stages of development,” said Hagen. “We have the methodology to determine if our new package resonates with consumers. We don’t have to wait to build one or two physical prototypes.” He acknowledged there may come a point during the consumer testing process when the participant wants to pick up the shampoo bottle, flip up the cap and smell the product, but leading up to that point P&G is able to have an ongoing, back-and-forth conversation with consumers about their likes and dislikes.

Referring to the merits of virtualization processes, Hagen said, “It’s really faster, better and cheaper. Cheaper is the less important part of that mantra.” He added the tools help P&G more efficiently drill down to what “wows” the consumer.

The company noted that in hair care, virtual tools have been key to cutting development time for redesigned packages by nearly 50 percent. Several years ago, P&G’s hair care business created 3-D package designs for the restaging of the Herbal Essences and Aussie Brands. The result, said P&G, was packaging that better reflects consumer needs. For instance, the firm restaged the Herbal Essences range with jelly bean colored, curved bottles that fit more snuggly in consumers hands and in their showers.

P&G is also taking its technology on the road to retailers.

Using mobile devices, the company can virtually show retailers how to best display a category, reconfigure an aisle or reinvent the store, said Hagen, adding that P&G can also share consumer feedback on a number of displays.

“Virtualization allows P&G to present [retailers] three times as many options as before,” he said, referring to manually setting up displays. He would not comment on what kind of sales gains retailers have seen when they implement virtually generated planograms, but said, “Retailers definitely see a sales lift.”

Media maybe fragmented, said Hagen, “But one place we know where we can find her is in the store.”

AI 150: over 5,000 educators now in Second Life as vlearning start to fertilise new ideas for education

2008-11-17T23:33:00.000-08:00

The Second Life virtual world is already home to about 5,000 educators, according to Linden Labs, which runs it.

In Second Life avatars lecturers teach, and student avatars practice their skills, for course credits.

V-learning heralds a new way for people to learn more complex matter in shorter timeframes.

AI 140 British Android ‘Jules’ Mimics Facial Expressions with human like qualities

2008-11-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

Scientists at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) have devised the first android robot that can perform the precise lip movements and facial expressions of human beings.

Named ‘Jules’, the robot can automatically copy human movements by capturing them with its video camera ‘eyes’ and mapping them onto small electronic motors in its skin.

The process allows Jules’ disembodied androgynous robotic head to grin and grimace, furrow its brow and 'speak'.

Jules mimics these expressions by converting the video images into digital commands, which allow the robot's servos and motors to produce copies of these movements in real time. Indeed, the robot can interpret commands at 25 frames per second.

Robotics engineers Chris Melhuish, Neill Campbell and Peter Jaeckel worked three-and-a-half years developing the groundbreaking software that allows the interaction between humans and artificial intelligence. Jules has 34 internal motors covered with flexible rubber ('Frubber') skin, which was commissioned from U.S. roboticist David Hanson for the project.

The quality of the androids is getting better and better as they become more human like, such as:

• Repliee R-1 (refer to AI 101)

• Intelligent female" android from Tokyo’s robotdreams.com (refer to AI 99)

AI 139 Federation of American Scientists use wiki as open knowledge system about virtual worlds

2008-11-14T01:55:00.000-08:00

Source: Author: Monica Amarelo, Federation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists unveiled an ambitious infrastructure for cataloging virtual environments called the Virtual Worlds Almanac. This wiki classifies virtual worlds and includes extensive links to tools, news, and other useful online reference materials.

There is great potential for virtual worlds to facilitate the development and testing of powerful new learning technologies. A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment. Users inhabit and interact via avatars, or computer-generated characters.
“People worldwide can edit and contribute to this comprehensive guide to virtual worlds,” said Henry Kelly, President of the Federation of American Scientists. "We hope this wiki will make it easier for the community to collaborate and to keep abreast of innovations and new product offerings. FAS is interested in the potential virtual worlds offer for educational and learning."

The FAS Learning Technologies Program built the Virtual Worlds Almanac as a one-stop guide for information on the structure and capabilities of these sites. The wiki includes the engines used to create these simulated environments and related information like news, reviews and other links.

“Many features of the FAS Virtual Worlds Almanac enable visitors to learn more about virtual worlds. The ‘feature finder’ permits users to browse through each world based on their interests,” said Bruce Milligan, FAS Learning Technologies Project Manager. “Users can narrow their searches by filtering through more than 30 variables like purpose, platform, language, and year released.”

Virtual world developers, academics and the general public who use the listed worlds are encouraged to review, modify, and contribute to the wiki. FAS invites all users to create new listings for virtual worlds not already included. A template simplifies the process of adding and revising information. There are also forms to upload screenshots, news articles, external links, and more.

Most of the data in the Virtual Worlds Almanac is entered via checkboxes, drop-down lists, and specific textboxes, and supported variables include those related to use, technical features, communication, and demographics. All the information added by visitors will contribute to the serious research that will benefit all who have an interest in the Internet and its educational potential.

“The system used to create the virtual worlds feature finder is infinitely expandable,” said Michelle Lucey-Roper, director of the FAS Learning Technologies Program. “Anyone can edit and contribute to the Virtual Worlds Almanac. In fact, one of our primary intentions is the collaborative growth of the wiki.”

Further information can be obtained from http://vworld.fas.org/wiki/Main_Page

AI 138: Facebook starts to attract 3D games with SceneCaster and Millions of Us launching The Quest for Eternal Life

2008-11-13T01:26:00.000-08:00

SceneCaster and Millions of Us (refer to AI 35) have launched of a new Facebook game, The Quest for Eternal Life.

"SceneCaster already enjoys an active user community that is creating and sharing immersive 3D scenes on the Web and on social networks such as Facebook," Mark Zohar, CEO, SceneCaster, said in a statement.

"The 'Quest for Eternal Life' is the first casual game developed off the SceneCaster platform. Working closely with Millions of Us we believe we have created a fun, engaging and challenging game that showcases SceneCaster's unique 3D capabilities, brings users plenty of spooky fun through Halloween and beyond and offers brands and advertisers an extremely engaging and effective sponsorship and in-game advertising platform."

AI 137: digital dialogue being used by Cigna to address the consumer knowledge gap in the healthcare and insurance market

2008-11-12T03:45:00.000-08:00

This is an article by by STUART ELLIOTT from the New York Times that shows how 3d web is being used for education in the health insurance market.

This campaign from a giant insurance company seeks to school consumers on health care by offering them a chance to attend a virtual institution of higher learning with no campus, sports teams, classrooms or fight song.

Best of all, there will never be letters from the alumni office dunning graduates for donations.

The insurance company is Cigna, which has introduced Cigna University with an interactive “e-learning” curriculum. The program is part of a brand campaign that carries the theme “It’s time to feel better,” which provides the address for the educational Web site.

“We can’t fix the entire health system overnight,” say newspaper and magazine ads that are meant to help drive traffic to the Web site. “But we’re doing everything in our power to make it better for you.”

The curriculum on the Web site is also available on Facebook, flickr.com and YouTube and as podcasts on iTunes. It is composed of three courses: “Back to the Basics,” the equivalent of Health Insurance 101; “What’s Your Plan,” outlining the ins and outs of health care plans; and “Take Action Now,” examining the health care platforms of the Democratic and Republican Parties.

And since few universities are all work and no play, visitors to the Web site can try their luck at a game about issues related to health. As an incentive to play, Cigna is making donations to an organization called Water for People for each three questions that computer users answer correctly.

The brand campaign includes, in addition to the print ads, three television commercials, one of them 60 seconds long.

The shops collaborating on Cigna University are Doremus, an advertising agency owned by the Omnicom Group, and an Omnicom public relations agency, Fleishman-Hillard, along with the Fleishman-Hillard digital health care practice.

The budget to develop the online health courses and the game is estimated at $400,000. The “It’s time to feel better” campaign, which Cigna intends to run for several years, has a multimillion-dollar budget.

“One of our main objectives is for consumers to be empowered,” says Sheila McCormick, director for consumer education at the Chicago office of Cigna, adding that company executives “recognize it’s difficult for people to act if they don’t understand” how the health care system — and health insurance — work.

Research shows that “only 8 percent say they understand all they need to know about health care,” she adds, which is “worse than we thought.”

Ms. McCormick acknowledges the widespread skepticism — even cynicism — about efforts to improve health care in the United States as well as the health insurance system.
“The industry is not perceived as positively by consumers as we would like,” Ms. McCormick says, and as a result “it’s very difficult to engage people.”

To counter that, the courses “are not branded Cigna and the Cigna logo is not all over them,” she adds, to underline that the initiative is “not to sell product but to educate people”

Howard Sherman, president of Doremus in New York, says a goal is to “stake out a leadership position” for Cigna, which is beginning to “think of itself as less of a health insurer and more of a health service company.”

“It’s more about that service mentality,” he says of Cigna University, assisting “members and employers to more easily navigate what’s a pretty complex system and get the benefits they need when they need them.”

One way to do that, Mr. Sherman says, is by “moving away from the jargon of health care,” so the courses are presented in as straightforward a fashion as was possible.
For instance, the educational programs are in a section of the Web site labeled “Its time to know stuff.” A demonstration of claim processing appears as “The life of a claim” in a virtual theatre.

“This is very much about a company that recognizes it’s in its own best interests to change,” Mr. Sherman says, “to make it easier for employer customers and member customers.”

Part of making it easier is the widespread presence of the courses in the new media outlets like Facebook, iTunes and YouTube.

“It was a great opportunity to try a host of things we’ve never utilized before,” says Karen Kocher, chief learning officer at Cigna, who is also based in Chicago.
“It recognizes the way learning tends to permeate,” she adds.

Erin Enke, a managing supervisor at the Fleishman-Hillard office in New York specializing in digital health care public relations, says the game was included in the curriculum because such content tends to be “more sticky” — that is, encouraging computer users to stay on Web sites longer.

“If you’re playing the game and enjoy it,” Ms. Enke says, “it automatically updates your Facebook page to show you’ve been playing.”

The presence of Cigna University on Facebook and the other Web sites is “not just because we can use them,” she adds, but rather to enable those consumers who consider visits to those sites as integral parts of their daily routines to “become familiar with Cigna.”

So far, the strategy seems to be working. As of last week, a month into the campaign, Cigna tracked 52,500 visits to the courses and the game, according to a spokeswoman for the company, Gloria Barone Rosanio, and 85 percent of the traffic to the Web site had come from Facebook and other “online referrals” that included blog posts and online articles.

And the donations to Water for People that Cigna is making for correct answers to game questions reached more than 52,300 as of last week, meaning that game players had answered more than 150,000 questions correctly. (The game informs players that for each three questions they get right, a child in a developing country gets a day of clean water.)

Cigna has agreed to donate $50,000 to Water for People through the end of the year, Ms. McCormick says.